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Business Incubator Center marks 40 years and global recognition at City Council
Summary
The Business Incubator Center celebrated its 40th anniversary before the Grand Junction City Council and announced an international award recognizing it as a top incubator; CEO Dalida Sasson Bolik reviewed five program pillars, local economic impacts, and initiatives supporting Spanish-speaking founders, ag, and circular-economy projects.
The Grand Junction Business Incubator Center used its May 20 city council appearance to mark its 40th anniversary, summarize a year of entrepreneurship support and regional initiatives, and announce an international award that puts the local incubator “on the global map.”
“I'm Dalida Sasson Bolik, the CEO of the Business Incubator Center,” Bolik told council members and attendees, outlining five operational pillars—business development (including SBDC and Spanish-language Camino support), maker-space and prototyping labs, space and tools, business funding and loans, and grants and incentives—that structure the incubator’s work.
Bolik shared program metrics for 2025: the incubator served 647 entrepreneurs, helped 112 launch through its campus, supported creation of 393 new jobs, deployed about $6,250,000 in direct support to entrepreneurs and reported roughly $12,300,000 in new dollars generated for the community. She also highlighted a long-standing city partnership: “Since our founding in 1986, the City of Grand Junction was with us as a founding board member,” she said.
Bolik said the incubator led the redesignation application for the state enterprise zone with OEDIT, successfully keeping downtown businesses eligible for tax incentives and grandfathering some locations for 10 years. She described three targeted initiatives: an Agro West sustainability effort focused on agriculture, Camino Alexito (Spanish-language entrepreneurial support), and a Circular Economy Development Center in partnership with CDPHE to reduce waste and create markets for small businesses.
She invited the council and public to a 40th-anniversary kickoff on June 4 at Ramblebyne and described external recognition: the incubator received the Diana Atkins Randall award from the International Business Innovation Association, selected from more than 1,200 incubators in 33 countries.
Council members and attendees thanked Bolik for sustained partnership; council recognized the incubator’s role in local job creation and economic diversification. The presentation was noncontroversial and informational; no formal council action was required.
