Some banks pay hefty prices for the naming rights to sports stadiums. Renasant Corp. in Tupelo, Miss., is attaching its handle to a much different enterprise.
The $2.5 billion-asset company struck a deal last month to pay $200,000 over five years for the naming rights to The Idea Center, a business incubator being started in Tupelo.
"This was the type of venture we wanted to get our name associated with," said E. Robinson McGraw, Renasant's chairman and chief executive officer. "We're a small-business bank, and what better way to spend your money than by helping to build small businesses."
According to the National Business Incubator Association there are about 1,000 business incubators in North America and about 4,000 worldwide, and the ones in North America have created an estimated 500,000 jobs since 1980. They provide start-up businesses and more established ones with the tools and expertise they need to grow.
In return for a monthly fee, the Renasant Center for Ideas - Idea is an acronym for innovation, development, entrepreneurship in action - will give small businesses access to storefront space, offices, and even the capability to carry out light manufacturing. A consultant will be available three days a week to help entrepreneurs develop business plans, and the center will host seminars on topics including tax preparation, grant writing, and banking.
The center is the brainchild of the Community Development Foundation, a Tupelo nonprofit that received funding of $4 million from nine federal, state, and local entities.
"We want to grow and diversify our region's economy by growing new and existing businesses," said Wayne Averett, the foundation's vice president for entrepreneurship and small-business development.
Though the center's grand opening is not until late September, a restaurant and a health-care company have signed up as clients.
"There's quite a bit of interest there," Mr. McGraw said.
Mr. Averett would not disclose the exact fees the businesses pay, but said it was a "good low rate."
The incubator association, in Athens, Ohio, said it knew of no other bank that was acquiring the naming rights to a business incubator, though M&T Bank opened a branch in a business incubator in its hometown of Buffalo last week.
Businesses that participate in the center will not be required to bank with Renasant, but bank officers will run seminars at the center on how their products can help small businesses - giving Renasant a good opportunity to land new business. It will get an additional marketing benefit by having its name appear on publications distributed to small businesses.
Mr. McGraw said he hopes that once the businesses grow and no longer need the center's help, they will continue to look to Renasant for banking services.
He said he expects Renasant's involvement with the business incubator to earn it Community Reinvestment Act credit.
Renasant Corp., which has been in business since 1904, changed its name from Peoples Holding Co. in 2005 after buying Renasant Bancshares in Germantown, Tenn.
