ACES Incubator

The Albany Center for Economic Success (ACES) Incubator facility offers flexible workspace, with two and three-room business suites available. The incubator is conveniently located at 255 Orange Street, near downtown Albany, I-90 and I-787. Offices are fully furnished.

Each office suite comes with:

High-speed internet access
Wi-Fi
Shared office equipment, including printer/copier
Shared conference room
Access to shared office services available, including bookkeeping, printing
Onsite technical training and assistance, offered by ACES and Community Loan Fund of the Capital Region
Shared kitchen and breakroom area
Ample parking, with shared business amenities
Outdoor space, in a convenient, walkable neighborhood

Rent $9-$11 per square foot, with utilities included (Heat, A/C, electric).

Space now available. Contact our offices at (518) 436-8586 to learn more, or complete the inquiry form below and we’ll get in touch with you.

Incubator News

ACES Business Owner Named To “40 Under 40” By Albany Business Review

Practice makes perfect, that’s what all of our teachers, parents, and mentors told us growing up in school, at home, on the stage, or on the field. For business owner LaQuetta Alexander-Ellis, “Practice2Perfect” takes on a slightly different meaning. LaQuetta’s mission since starting Practice2Perfect has been simple; empower aspiring healthcare professionals with the highest quality education, nationally recognized certifications, and a clear pathway to success in the workforce. Safe to say since moving into the ACES incubator in 2020 she has accomplished just that. Since 2020, LaQuetta has graduated over 575 people from her [Read More]

ACES Named 2022 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Business Honoree

The Albany Center of Economic Success (ACES) has been named one of six recipients of the 2022 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Business Awards from the Albany Business Review. In order to be recognized for this award, individuals and entities must show a commitment to promoting practices, that advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace and within the business community.

“The Community Loan Fund has been committed to ACES since it’s inception and it is great to see the program get this recognition from it’s peers within the business community” says Linda MacFarlane, Executive [Read More]

Building Blocks Together Moves into ACES Incubator

Building Blocks Together, a business that promotes homeownership for marginalized populations, has opened its doors at the ACES Small Business Incubator.

Headed by Virginia Rawlins, the LLC was started three years ago to help combat blight and spark community revitalization. “The mission of Building Blocks Together is to build wealth and equity for the disenfranchised communities through education, real estate ownership and development,” says Rawlins.

The City of Albany is plagued by underutilized vacant and abandoned properties. Building Blocks Together plans to purchase, rehab and sell the properties to first time homebuyers, while combating gentrification. The [Read More]

AllStreet Global Entertainment launches weekly web-series on entrepreneurs

Kasir Rasul founded AllStreet Global in 2010 as a way to create new arts and entertainment programs to educate youth and encourage conversation, collaboration, and mentorship. The business quickly bloomed into event photography and merchandising, and with an added goal of bringing wealth and prosperity back to Black neighborhoods.

“Our neighborhoods produce change and welcome new ideas to make our communities productive across the globe,” Rasul says.

In March of 2020, Rasul moved his business out of his home and into a new studio in the ACES incubator because he wanted to expand capacity. He had [Read More]

Kema Kreations expands to keep up with demand

Kema Kreations has moved to larger offices to keep up with increasing demand for her handcrafted bags, accessories, and more recently, masks. Karen Maxwell has moved her popular handbag and design business into one of the larger four-office suites in the ACES business incubator in order to accommodate new equipment and additional staff.

Maxwell and her team have gone into high gear during since COVID, with mask orders coming in day and night.

Maxwell has create several new masks products to keep up with increasing interest, including wristlets with matching masks, masks with customized embroidery, and [Read More]

ACS Printing continues to grow services

ACS Printing provides professional commercial printing services to a diverse audience. Walk into the downtown Albany printshop, located right in the basement of our business incubator, and you will find political candidates picking up campaign posters, museum directors dropping off annual report materials, students dropping off newsletters, and individuals picking up flyers for a bake sale fundraiser. The family-owned and run printshop hums with activity most days of the week, but since the COVID-19 crisis, the printshop has been quiet. This week, the printshop reopened, and owner Averell Hilton couldn’t be happier. “The doors [Read More]

Ethel Walker harnesses incubator to make racetrack hats

Ethel Walker opened her millinery shop, The Hat Boutiques, at the Community Loan Fund incubator nearly six years ago. She wanted a place she could create and show her hats to potential clients, and the incubator was so conveniently located and affordable, she just couldn’t pass it up. “The size of the office space gave me an opportunity to have a workspace and a showroom,” she says.

Her new studio also allowed her to increase her online sales, because she could now set up photo shoots of her charming chapeaus.

Walker specializes in hats for church [Read More]

Qaadir Islam uses power of language to lift people up at Universal Concepts

Qaadir Islam, life coach and owner of Universal Concepts, says that words make people. Islam has been working with clients dealing with addiction, trauma, and other issues for more than 30 years, and in that time, he has been convinced of the power of language to both lift people up, and hold people back. “Definition gives direction,” Islam says.

Islam’s coaching practice, Universal Concepts is located at the ACES incubator. There, he meets with clients to help them manage their anger, cravings, emotions, hatred, and teach them how to control their emotions. During the trainings, [Read More]

Kingdom Services Unlimited – snow removal, lawn mowing, and character development

In 2014, when John Walker was laid off during a local manufacturer’s downsizing, he had a decision: look for another position or go full-time into the side hustle he had been working on for 10 years: property maintenance.

[Read More]

Incubator Expansion

$4M Goal

Help Us Achieve Our Goal

The Community Loan Fund is expanding our incubator to create more space for businesses owned by women, minorities and people of low income. The Loan Fund won $100,000 as part of this year’s National Grid CleanTech Incubator Program, bringing our funds raised to $900,000 total.

The project is located at 236 Clinton Avenue, to the rear of the current incubator facility at 255 Orange Street. The new facility will include 15 new office suites, 4 new storefronts, a state-of-the-art training center, and drop-in daycare center, as well as 38 affordable housing units.

“Expanding our incubator facility building to Clinton Avenue will allow us to build highly visible and accessible commercial space into our existing facility. It will also allow us to have connectivity with the ongoing revitalization activities happening in this area,” says Linda MacFarlane, Executive Director of the Community Loan Fund of the Capital Region.

Construction will begin in Spring of 2022.

Help us achieve our goal by donating to the project.

donate now