KENDALLVILLE — Kendallville is getting a boost in an effort to develop a co-working space for startups and entrepreneurs with T-Mobile granting $25,000 toward such a project.
It’s the first community in Indiana to receive a Hometown Grant from the major mobile communications provider since it launched its rural development program.
The grant was announced in a small event hosted at Hosler Realty on Friday afternoon, with Joe DeCraene, northeast Indiana’s T-Mobile regional representative, bringing the oversized check to present to Historic Downtown Kendallville in collaboration with SCORE and the Noble County Economic Development Corp ., Be Noble.
“Hometown Grants began spring 2021 to help rural America,” DeCraene said. “We want to be a part of your community and help the small towns thrive.”
T-Mobile not only provides cell phone service and data across the US as one of the big three mobile telecom providers, but also has recently T-Mobile 5G Internet, bringing broadband level speeds to anywhere that can pick up service from its towers.
As traditional telecoms have generally not brought physical high-speed internet service like fiberoptic into rural areas with a limited user base, mobile broadband can be a major advancement for rural residents who have been relegated to slow and spotty internet connections for years.
DeCraene said T-Mobile is in the process of making significant upgrades to coverage in northeast Indiana. Sprint was a predominant player in mobile service in northeast Indiana but Sprint merged with T-Mobile in 2020 after a two-year transition process.
New towers are coming online in the coming months that will improve T-Mobile service in areas such as Huntertown, LaOtto and Albion where the signal is currently weak, he said.
The funds from T-Mobile will be added in with a similar $25,000 grant from the Don Wood Foundation, giving Kendallville a good financial start towards pinning down a location and developing an office space.
Co-working spaces are shared office facilities in which small business owners can pay a monthly subscription fee and get access to work space as well as other amenities like telephone and internet, software and printers and conference room spaces.
Co-working spaces also put entrepreneurs into close contact with others like there and encourage new small business owners to help each other out along the way in working through shared problems and concerns that a startup might face.
Establishing co-working spaces in multiple Noble County downtowns is a top goal of Be Noble for its 2022-23 year.
Earlier this year, Be Noble pitched the idea in Avilla as the town was considering redevelopment of a vacant two-story building on Albion Street near the city’s stoplight intersection, while in Ligonier, developers have been eyeing the old fire station as a possible site for a co-working space there.
A particular location hasn’t been pinned down in Kendallville yet, but the co-working space will be located somewhere downtown.
“This facility, once completed, will not only help individuals by providing the tools to help launch a business, but will attract new talent to downtown Kendallville,” said Tara Streb, president of Historic Downtown Kendallville and administrative assistant for Be Noble.
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