Incubators are a growth industry.

Many communities have developed “business incubators” to protect new companies in their formative years of development. Business incubators are proven tools for creating jobs, encouraging technology transfer, and starting new businesses. Designed to assist in the growth and development of new enterprises, incubators themselves have become a growth industry. According to the National Business Incubator Association (NBIA) surveys:

The number of incubators in the U.S. has increased from 12 in 1980 to more than 1,400 in 2007.
On average, one new business incubator opens each week in the U.S., and over 45 countries now have incubator programs.
Over the past few years, for-profit incubators have been opening at the rate of nearly four per week. Many serve as vehicles for owners’ investments in a portfolio of companies.
Over 35,000 small firms currently reside in incubators; thousands more have “graduated” to occupy their own commercial space within their communities.

Incubators make sense for the community.

Incubators also benefit the community. According to studies conducted by the NBIA and the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration:

For every $1 of public operating subsidy provided the incubator each year, clients and graduates of incubators generate about $45 in local tax revenue alone.
About 84 percent of incubator graduates stay in their communities and continue to provide a return to their investors.
Publicly supported incubators create jobs at a cost of about $1,100 each, whereas other publicly supported job-creation mechanisms commonly cost more than $10,000 per job.
In North America, incubator clients and graduates have created about half a million jobs since 1980 — enough jobs to employ every person living in Denver, Colorado!
Every 50 jobs created by an incubator client generate another 25 jobs in the community.