Sterling’s small business incubator lends entrepreneurs a helping hand

STERLING — If you have an idea for a business but need some assistance getting started, the Greater Sterling Development Corp. can help.

GSDC Executive Director Heather Sotelo helps run the Sterling Small Business and Technology Center business incubator at 1741 Industrial Drive in Sterling.

The business incubator houses 24, 1,500-square-foot units for small business owners to grow their operations in a low-rate lease space with access to workplace amenities, equipment and two loading docks. The GSDC also offers consulting, business plan development and grant and loan assistance.

The incubator currently leases 20 of its units to growing businesses, including a company that resells books on Amazon, Woody’s Popcorn, and Carbide 3D, a company that makes Computer Numerical Control routers and desktop CNC machines.

“They’re routers that you can put on your table to make things,” Sotelo said. “The federal government has purchased them; Lockheed Martin has purchased them, NASA has purchased them. When they first started, they had one product. Now they have many products, and they started in this little unit.”

The business incubator also houses the Kitchen Incubator of NorthWest Illinois, a 3,000-square-foot fully furnished commercial kitchen space for food entrepreneurs.

GSDC Business Manager Krista Morthland said the kitchen incubator was built in 2012 and features a consultation room, a cooking space outfitted with a steam-jacketed kettle, a commercial deep fryer, a tilt skillet and a 10-burner stove with a double oven. There is also a baking room, complete with commercial mixers, racks, ovens and other equipment.

“We can fit up to three clients in here at a time,” Morthland said. “They can use all of the equipment, which is already paid for, so there’s no overhead. This is a not-for-profit. Every bit of money that we make goes right back into the kitchen.”

The kitchen incubator currently has seven full-time clients that use the facility, which has helped several Sauk Valley businesses grow into brick-and-mortar restaurants, including Leo’s Marvelous Bites in Dixon, Coqui Comfort in Rock Falls and Luchadores Mexican Grill in Harmon.

Sotelo said the kitchen incubator was built by one of the business incubator’s former tenants, Via Roma Pizza.

“They paid to have the space built out and then they left and moved to a larger space,” Sotelo said. “So, we had this space that was all kitchen and we were trying to come up with a concept, and there it was.”

Sotelo said the GSDC began as the Sterling Industrial Development Commission in 1986. She said the SIDC was created by a group of local business leaders, including bankers, developers, contractors and lawyers, who built the incubator to help foster economic growth and industrial development.

“Virtually any business out in Eastwood, Westwood or the Meadowlands [Business Park], we have either built or helped them come to Sterling or expand,” Sotelo said. “The Dana Corporation and Heartland Controls in Rock Falls started in here. I could go on and on.”

The SIDC transitioned to a private nonprofit in 1990, rebranding as the GSDC to allow for tax-deductible donations and to maintain confidentiality in economic development projects. Sotelo said the GSDC manages the SIDC, which remains as a development commission for the city.

“In 1990, a lot of public development commissions went private, and the reason is twofold: first, as a public development commission, they couldn’t receive donations,” Sotelo said. “So, people couldn’t write those donations off. You need a 501(c)(3), and that’s why we founded the Sterling Riverfront Foundation. They needed the donations from other businesses and foundations.”

The transition also helped the GSDC with economic development project dealings, which often require confidentiality. As a public body, the SIDC was subject to open meeting laws, making confidentiality a challenge. By shifting to a nonprofit, the GSDC gained greater flexibility to work on projects in privacy until final agreements could be reached.

“Many of the things that are done in the economic development world have to remain private until the very last minute,” Sotelo said. “We oftentimes have to sign NDAs, and so much of that information can’t be made public. By taking it to a nonprofit, it keeps things private until they’re ready to be released.”

For more information on the GSDC or its small business and kitchen incubators, call 815-625-5255 or visit sterlingdevelopment.org.