Pioneers hand over baton

NICOLE GIBSON

The innovation hub credited with pioneering the start-up scene in regional Queensland and inspiring countless would be entrepreneurs is set to close its physical space in Cairns.

The region’s first startup ecosystem, TheSPACE, announced it will close its co-working premises at TAFE Queensland’s Cairns campus in mid-November, after more than 8 years.

Landlords, the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training (DES- BT), advised the business it required its building back as part of a program to revitalise TAFE training facilities.

TheSPACE CEO Troy Haines said they investigated the possibility of securing new premises with DESBT however decided it was time to handover the baton to others offering similar arrangements.

“There’s a lot of other people supporting entrepreneurs in (a co-working) capacity in Cairns now so we did the sums and decided it really wasn’t necessary anymore,” Mr Haines said.

Mr Haines said since 2012 TheSPACE had been home to hundreds of co-working

entrepreneurs and played a pivotal role spring-boarding innovation in the region.

The organisation hosted big names in business including Queensland’s Chief Entrepreneurs Mark Sowerby and Steve Baxter of Shark Tank fame.

Mr Haines said they were also instrumental in helping James Cook University secure funding for its multimillion dollar Cairns Innovation Centre.

“It was at TheSPACE, as the centre of start-up and innovation at the time, the Prime Minister of the day Malcolm Turnbull announced the $10 million-dollar funding commitment,” said Mr

Haines.

Mr Haines said while the physical space would close the group would continue to support entrepreneurship under its arms Transformative Technologies and I AM Connected.

TheSPACE Mentor and local businessman David Burston said since the announcement the business had been working to relocate the 14 businesses currently working from TheSPACE.

“We’ve been out there busy finding homes for most of them,” Mr Burston said. “We’ll keep supporting them afterwards to make sure they’re happy.