Job creation in Syracuse has received a major boost with an $85,000 grant from Chase to the South Side Innovation Center (SSIC).

SSIC, the area’s leading small business incubator and training center, was launched by Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management in April 2006. With 27 resident tenants, 300 clients and 1,000 people engaged in its classes and training, the SSIC is a major force in the redevelopment of the area’s economy.

Chase, New York’s largest bank, has a long and productive relationship with the SSIC, actively engaging in its programs and supporting programming and critical infrastructure necessary for the startup and growth of entrepreneurial firms in the area.

“Launching small businesses and encouraging their growth is an important piece in revitalizing the Central New York economy,” says David Horan, head of Chase middle market banking in Central New York. “Chase is proud to partner with and support the SSIC, which helps provide the tools local businesses need to be successful.”

Chase serves more than 8 million consumers and nearly 600,000 small businesses in New York through more than 780 bank branches across the state. Last year, Chase provided more than $10 billion of credit to 250,000 American small businesses, an increase of more than 40 percent from last year. Chase is now ranked the No.1 Small Business Administration (SBA) lender in America and in New York. In addition, the JPMorgan Chase Foundation increased its giving by 50 percent in 2010, extending $150 million in grants to programs that support community development, education and arts and culture.

“This continued support from Chase shows confidence in the economic potential of our region,” says Tom Kruczek, executive director of the Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship at Whitman. “Chase has been a wonderful partner because it understands that in a productive collaboration such as this, each partner multiplies the effect of the others. Chase has been instrumental in our successes at the SSIC.”

The SSIC serves all entrepreneurs in the region, and also has programs that focus on special populations. Its portfolio of programs includes the WISE Women’s Business Center (a U.S. Small Business Administration-funded women’s business center); Start-Up New York, a program for disabled entrepreneurs; PRIME, a program that focuses on low-income entrepreneurs; the Entrepreneurial Assistance Program, which focuses on developing business plans and opening markets; the SSIC Academy, which provides more than 180 hours of training in entrepreneurial subjects; and the Community Test Kitchen (COMTEK), which helps food entrepreneurs bring their food products to commercial markets.

The entrepreneurship program in the Whitman School is currently ranked ninth for undergraduate and 16th for graduate entrepreneurship programs nationwide by U.S. News & World Report.

JPMorgan Chase and SU opened the JPMorgan Chase Technology Center at SU in October 2009, an on-campus facility where students and faculty will work side-by-side with bank employees conducting research and running the bank’s global technology operations. The bank worked directly with the university to design curriculum for a minor and is currently working on a graduate program. The collaboration will bring hundreds of technology jobs to the Central New York region and is one of the most comprehensive between a business and a research university.

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