The move will accommodate the need for more office space. Operation Oswego County, which has owned the property since 1988, is looking to create a new, modern, business incubation facility in the future.
By Stefan Yablonski
The Business Expansion Center on East Seneca Street in Oswego will begin a new chapter in 2026.
Operation Oswego County has sold the building, known as a business incubator, to Oswego County while it looks for a new, more modern business incubation site. Meanwhile, the county plans to renovate the building to accommodate its need for more office space.
“It’s been on our mind for a while. For several years we have wanted to develop a new modern incubation center that meets the needs of today’s business,” said Austin Wheelock, executive director of Operation Oswego County.
For about five or 10 years OOC planned to sell the building. However, the timing didn’t work for it until recently, he added.
The county government came and said they had a need for the building — and so it allows OOC to meet both the county’s needs and enables OOC to be able to get funds that they can redirect into a more modern incubation space going forward, Wheelock said.
In the meantime, OOC will be out of incubation space in Oswego for probably a couple of years before they have a new facility up and running.
OOC bought the building from the Alma Foundation in 1988.
“We are selling this building to the county by the end of this year because they have a need for it next year,” Wheelock said. “We are going to be redeploying that capital to develop a new modern incubation facility.”
There is no new site as yet, he added.
“For the new incubator, we are still trying to finalize where that is going to be. It could potentially be in the city of Oswego. It could be in another community. We are looking into that right now,” he said. “One of the things that we are considering is that with the growth of Micron and other things happening in southern Oswego County, we are taking a hard look at the industrial park as potential locations for future incubation.
“I would say probably by this time next year we will have much more details. Some of the needs of incubation will be decided by future manufacturing needs. So, we are still in that space scoping process phase right now. We should have more information middle to later next year.”
The county is going to be using the East Seneca facility for multiple purposes.
They have several departments that have grown in recent years and they are looking to move some of their departments like mobility management and some other potential uses that could be related to the sheriff’s office and some other things.
Former home to many businesses
OOC bought the building from the Alma Foundation.
“Operation Oswego County originally acquired the building in 1988. At the time, 1988, it met the need for business incubation. But those needs for businesses have changed quite a bit over the last almost 40 years,” Wheelock said. “We want to make sure that businesses in Oswego County that need incubation services have access to that in a facility in the future that can meet all their needs.
“I came in 2006, so I don’t have a full list of the tenants. Just going back over the time that I’ve been involved, there is a list of 20 plus businesses that have worked in that facility going back that far. I believe Wagner Dotto [publisher of Oswego County Business Magazine) has the record for being there the longest. There are other tenants that we have had there for years and years as well. Going back early on, they also did childcare at that building. A lot of different uses, a lot of different businesses over that time.
“I don’t know when we actually started incubation. When we acquired it, there needed to be some new interior walls built into the facility. It was pretty wide open, at least on the front half of it. They had to build in some office walls and stuff. It was probably 1989 or 1990 that we started doing incubation.”
Bigger vision
“We have bigger visions of developing a facility that is going to have more … serve the needs of our businesses going forward,” he said. “We don’t have a space for light industrial. We worked with the city of Fulton and a developer to develop on the former nestle site for specific manufacturing business needs. This is more to make sure that we have incubation for your office users, your hi-tech company, specialty services. Those types of businesses. It’s a good move for the county. And I’m sure the next (incubation) facility we have will be good for us and meet our needs.”
East Seneca Street Incubator Housed Variety of Businesses
From a day care center to a magazine publishing business, the Business Expansion Center at 185 E. Seneca St. has been the home to dozens of businesses and organizations. Operation Oswego County acquired the building from the Alma Foundation in 1988.
“This is not an exhaustive list of all previous tenants at the BEC,” Wheelock said. “This is what we could find from circa 2002 to present.”
▪ AFLAC
▪ BNB Broker Buyer
▪ Growing Years Childcare
▪ Creekside Companion Care
▪ Davis Cleaning
▪ Equanimity Counseling
▪ Granola Jo
▪ Home Helpers
▪ ILRT
▪ Lybon Tool
▪ Mary Kay Cosmetics
▪ My Digital Discount
▪ Mystic Software
▪ North Coast Software
▪ Mettasoft
▪ Oswego County Board of Elections
▪ Oswego County usiness Magazine
▪ Port City Copy
▪ Stress Bioanalytics
▪ Under the Hammer
▪ Vortekz
▪ Anthony House Wellhouse Ministries
