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30 | Old Heat CERB Feasibility Study <br />Characteristics: <br />• Improve workforce skills and technology sophistication <br />• Generate or attract complementary firms that further increase the value <br />that existing regional enterprises provide. <br />• Foster R&D and knowledge spillovers <br />Examples: <br />• Advanced manufacturing firms: introduce precision tools and processes <br />that become regional capabilities. <br />• Health innovation centers: attract high-skill talent while improving services. <br />• High-tech service providers: connect to global supply chains and require <br />skilled support ecosystems. <br />• University research spin-offs: leverage intellectual capital and federal <br />grants for local enterprise formation. <br />Accelerative firms are critical to building robust, competitive industry clusters. <br />However, they typically emerge in ecosystems that already have a minimal base <br />of skilled labor, supplier networks, and research institutions. <br />Introducing the “Multiplicative” Enterprise aka: “Old Heat” <br />CWU proposes that the “Old Heat” facility become a Multiplicative Enterprise <br />Center — a site purposefully designed to support the emergence of accelerative <br />firms. <br /> <br />Rather than serving as a traditional business incubator or generic co-working <br />space, the repurposed Old Heat facility will serve as a strategic infrastructure <br />platform to support accelerative enterprise formation. It could possibly: <br />• Act as a facilitator for capturing infrastructure for other high-value <br />businesses. <br />• Integrate R&D, CWU faculty and student resources,production, and <br />workforce development. <br />• Create new markets or standards that anchor future firms <br />• House operational functions of accelerative businesses while they <br />establish footholds in the region. <br />Examples: <br />• Drone manufacturing platforms: <br />enabling multiple applications <br />in agtech, logistics, and public <br />safety. <br />• AI-enabled and other advanced <br />general purpose technology <br />labor-intensive services:creating <br />demand for new skills, <br />applications, and functional/ <br />legal frameworks (See the ACT <br />I Project Congressional Directed <br />Spending Request for further <br />information) • Advanced manufacturing production: foundational inputs for aerospace, <br />biotech, and energy firms. <br />• Health device manufacturing: linking bioengineering, diagnostics, and data <br />systems into scalable platforms. <br />Such enterprises offer regional leverage, not just incremental jobs or revenue. <br />They form the connective tissue for ecosystems to emerge in places where none <br />existed before.