After being fully funded by New York State, development of a software company incubator at Briarcliffe College in Bethpage is moving forward, Assemblyman Marc Herbst announced last week.

A $525,000 grant from the New York State Economic Development Corporation went to the Briarcliffe Foundation last month, spurring the start of the furnishing of the site. Located on 23,000 square feet of the college's main building, which is located in a former Grumman engineering building, it is expected to be fully operational by the first quarter of 1999.

Herbst noted that the move is expected to generate 125 new private-sector jobs at the site within three years of disbursement of the funds. "Encouraging growth in the high technology and software industries is one of the smartest economic moves we can make," he stated in a release to the press. "New jobs in Nassau County are always welcome news, and these in the software and high-tech fields are traditionally some of the highest paying and most sought after of any employment category."

In an interview last week, Briarcliffe's President Richard Turan expressed a belief that the incubator will play a key part in job growth on Long Island. "I think it's a breakthrough. I think it's going to be a wonderful thing for the economy, because it's going to foster the high technology that we need on Long Island, and I think it's going to be wonderful for the college," he said.

The funds were first announced by Governor Pataki in March as part of a $22 million package to fund six incubators for biotechnology, software and other emerging technologies on Long Island. Lobbyists for the funds had included the Long Island delegation of the Assembly and the Long Island Regional Incubator Task Force.

The $525,000 for Briarcliffe was in addition to $75,000 allocated to the college by the state last year for planning and design of the incubator. The total of $600,000, plus $75,000 in private funding is enough to jump-start the incubator, according to Turan. "We're not looking for any more," he said. "In other words, we feel that this is what we need to build the incubator. We're going to move forward with it. The incubator's going to be self-supporting."

The grants will fund mostly construction of the incubator's interior, which when complete, will feature high tech equipment such as high-speed Internet access and high-speed computers. These will provide assistance to its tenants - fledgling software companies. The facility will host a maximum of 19 tenants.

Even before being fully funded, the incubator has hosted three start-up, software-related companies, and has been equipped with some high tech equipment, such as cable modems, that were made possible through private partnerships. However, Turan envisions that the fully furnished facility will be beyond compare. "Basically, it will look like the research and development division of a Fortune 500 company," he said. "It will be a network. It will be a place for them to conduct business, and the concept behind it is that a company comes in - a young, start-up company that we think has potential - we support them, we nurture them, and in one to three years, we expect them to graduate from the incubator, move into commercial space and hire people." High turnover will be key to the success of the project.

Long Island Software and Technology Network (LISTNET), a trade association of 475 Long Island software companies, and an offshoot of the Long Island Association's Project Long Island, will help manage the incubator, and will also be headquartered at Briarcliffe.

There is a high demand for space at the incubator, according to Turan, who added, "We already have some people who are former Grumman engineers and computer specialists who have expressed interest in coming back to this building, which is the former Grumman engineering headquarters, and occupying the incubator."

Excitement among the high tech community about its impact on the local economy is also plentiful, he noted. "It gives us an opportunity to spawn new high tech companies that will occupy commercial space that will hire local people, that will bring resources. We're hoping that the prosperity that Silicon Valley has seen, and even New York City, what they now call, Silicon Alley, will be duplicated on Long Island."

According to Turan, the software facility will benefit the local area both environmentally and economically. "The nice thing about software companies is that they occupy very clean space - they don't pollute. They don't use a lot of energy, they employ highly educated people, and they pay them very well. So it's the type of industry that we want. So they don't need great resources, except that they will have lots of computers and high speed data lines and conference space, shared facilities, and access to the resources of the college and the Long Island high tech community," he said. "Bethpage has, for many years, been home to Grumman, and they made some of the finest products in aerospace in the world, and now I think it's appropriate that some of the same facilities are being used to develop the software industry on Long Island."