PNC partners with Arcade innovation hub
Start-up center will be named The Hub Powered by PNC Bank.
The innovation hub at the Dayton Arcade will be named The Hub Powered by PNC Bank, officials with the University of Dayton and The Entrepreneurs Center announced Friday.
Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. PNC will not have an employee or retail presence at the site, but the bank will perform programming there such as business education and support of start-ups.
The Hub, expected to open in late 2020, will occupy 95,000 square feet in the 500,000-squarefoot Arcade with academic programs from the University of Dayton; business, venture creation and commercialization support services from The Entrepreneurs Center; tied to working space for small businesses and start-ups.
Start-ups will find open desks and offices in the hub, with meeting rooms, conference areas, highspeed internet and other amenities, the Entrepreneurs Center and the university said in a joint announcement.
The partnership will “expand programming at The Hub to immerse students in the business community and help entrepreneurs from across the greater Day
ton community bring their ideas to life,” the announcement said.
“Before I saw one rendering of what was possible within the Arcade, I knew PNC needed to be a part of it,” said Dave Melin, Dayton regional president for PNC. “I knew it because of the partnerships we have formed with TEC (The Entrepreneurs Center) and UD, and a longstanding relationship was so vital that I figured we had to be a player in this great exciting new asset.”
“You’re starting to see this community once again lead this nation through innovation,” said Scott Koorndyk, Entrepreneurs Center president.
The Arcade is a sprawling complex of five connected buildings, topped by a distinctive rotunda, whose construction started between 1902 and 1904. After laying mostly dormant since 1990, the newly developed Arcade will offer arts, business and residential spaces.
One idea behind the PNC partnership is to encourage students to remain in the Dayton area on graduation, the center and UD said in a joint release.
PNC has not been been the only recent Arcade announcement.
All second- and third-floor office spaces that ring the historic Dayton Arcade’s rotunda have been leased — including a portion to Sinclair Community College, the Dayton Daily News recently reported.
Sinclair will open the new 2,500-square-feet Sinclair Entrepreneur Center in The Hub at the Dayton Arcade to help teach aspiring and existing entrepreneurs, Sinclair officials have said.
Joining the University of Dayton and The Entrepreneurs Center at the Hub will expose Sinclair students to entrepreneurial opportunities and support services to enhance Sinclair’s academic programs, said Steve Johnson, president of Sinclair Community College.