About
Introducing The Corner, Alle-Kiski’s destination for entrepreneurial learning, coworking, and community activity. Anchoring New Kensington’s Corridor of Innovation, The Corner catalyzes and celebrates the city’s transformation into an inviting home and business destination for entrepreneurs and small business. Thoughtfully designed and equipped for individuals and small organizations, local residents, and visiting businesses, The Corner is the place to do business and grow your community.
The Corner started as a seed, literally a seed grant from President Barron of Penn State University, who wanted his campuses to explore how to use entrepreneurs and ideation to drive economic development in communities across the state. Penn State New Kensington Chancellor Snider proposed an experiment. Entrepreneurial ecosystems designed to support the ideation process have revitalized cities across the industrialized world. Usually these ecosystems are in large urban settings where supporting services (restaurants, coffee shops, luxury apartments) already exist and the combination of entrepreneurs and resources have led to urban renewal. However, small RustBelt cities without existing resources are missing out on this opportunity.
The Penn State New Kensington experiment is to build a scalable, sustainable, and ultimately transferable entrepreneurial ecosystem model that drives economic development in a small Rust Belt area. There is an energy and hope in a town now looking towards its future instead of the past. And, as our humble project grows, the story will no longer be about The Corner. The story will be of a movement from RustBelt to Brain Belt that, if successful, can be replicated in small towns across Pennsylvania and the Midwest.
