New coworking space iHaven for student entrepreneurs

New Haven, CT has an impressive coworking space population, already, but that's not stopping new ones from popping up. This one, started by the local government is aimed at college students (sans Yale) and young entrepreneurs.

City small business economic development officials revealed that plan during the Development Commission’s regular monthly meeting on the second floor of City Hall.

Small Business Resource Center Director Cathy Graves and Small Business Counselor Gerry Garcia introduced the commissioners to the idea of iHaven, a new proposed coworking space designed to keep college student entrepreneurs from fleeing New Haven for Boston and New York after graduation.

“The idea is to make it too expensive to leave New Haven,” Garcia said. If the city can help provide enough small business development support for one of New Haven’s greatest resources, ambitious young college students, then maybe those students will find staying in New Haven is the best investment they can make in getting their businesses off the ground.

The city is no stranger to coworking spaces, nonconventional office spaces where the self-employed and small-businesspeople rent desks and hope to forge connections with fellow community-seeking entrepreneurs. To name a few, there’s Agora, formerly the Grove, on Chapel Street; the DISTRICT in Fair Haven; the Urban Collective in East Rock; and the Range at Lotta Studio in Westville.

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