{"id":37312,"date":"2025-04-11T11:51:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T15:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=37312"},"modified":"2025-05-02T14:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T18:47:12","slug":"magazine-only-the-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/magazine-only-the-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"Only the Beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Students

Furman’s Master of Science in Innovation and Leadership students have their monthly Friday in the Field at the Furman Innovation Lab at Crescent One on Friday, November 1, 2024. Photo by Owen Withycombe, Furman University.<\/p><\/div>\n

Stepping out of his glass-walled office and into a chic, comfortable lounge, Peter Marsh poured himself a cup of coffee from behind a well-stocked drink and snack bar as he spoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents are the future, and innovation is a futurist\u2019s game,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

All around him, dappled sunlight streamed in through wall-length windows and frosted skylights. The room looks like a welcoming coffee shop complete with sleek modern furniture and hip high-top tables, rather than the empty industrial facility the building was just a few years ago.<\/p>\n

This inviting workplace is inside the Crescent One building at Crescent SC \u2013 Greenville\u2019s newest coworking space. Crescent is a partnership between Furman University, Marsh\u2019s company Flywheel Coworking and Hartness Development, among other partners. At its heart is the Furman Innovation Lab, the hub for resources and programs provided by the Center for Innovative Leadership and The Hill Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

PEPSI AND PROGRESS<\/h3>\n

The Crescent SC site had a long history before its current role as home of the Furman Innovation Lab. Crescent SC sits at 701 Poinsett Highway, where the Hartness family operated a Pepsi bottling franchise from 1948 until moving the facility in the mid-1960s. Even after the move, they remained connected to the Poinsett corridor, housing Hartness International there until 1986.<\/p>\n

\"Entrance

The entrance to the Crescent Innovation District where the Furman Innovation Lab is located. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.<\/p><\/div>\n

But the building was vacant and defunct for years, says Sean Hartness, grandson of the building\u2019s original owners and Furman trustee emeritus. As CEO of Hartness Development, he approached The Hill Institute\u2019s staff about five years ago wanting to make use of the industrial site for a partnership. Teaming up offered a unique approach to handling urban blight challenges in the area, while providing space to support and host The Hill Institute\u2019s programs, including offering entrepreneurs room to develop and grow their businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us to have Furman\u2019s brand and the different programs The Hill Institute is running there, to have students in the space, we are extremely excited about it,\u201d Hartness says.<\/p>\n

The chatter of people networking filled Crescent at its official opening on Oct. 16, 2024. Encouraging messages from Furman President Elizabeth Davis, Marsh and Hartness celebrated the Crescent partnerships, while guests talked in the lounge. They toured Crescent\u2019s conference space, with room to host more than 300 people for seminars, retreats and other networking and education events.<\/p>\n

\"Two

Garrett Stern, left, executive director of the Center for Innovative Leadership, talks with Rob Warren, major gifts officer at Furman, in the Furman Innovation Lab at the Crescent Innovation District before the grand opening of the Crescent space on Wednesday evening, October 16, 2024. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.<\/p><\/div>\n

Marsh\u2019s designed coworking spaces can host 250-300 people in their shared work community, offering clients a membership model rather than requiring them to sign rental or lease agreements. The location is close to Furman\u2019s campus while beginning to bridge the distance to downtown Greenville. Placing the Innovation Lab here brings the talents of The Hill Institute and Center for Innovative Leadership closer to local businesses and industries, fostering stronger regional partnerships.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving that institutional commitment from Furman is particularly important. It\u2019s a vote of confidence that is meaningful to the community,\u201d Marsh says.<\/p>\n

Workspaces range from communal floors, where desks are available with all the features someone might need to do their work while having access to Crescent\u2019s amenities, to individual offices that provide privacy and quiet, with suites for larger companies needing more square footage for multiple employees. A lounge area offers employees space to mingle and have casual meetings, while clear, movable garage doors create a transparent border around the lounge that can be raised to expand the room when hosting events.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really a huge opportunity zone for revitalization and redevelopment, and we\u2019re one of the first partners,\u201d Marsh says.<\/p>\n

CLASSROOM AND INCUBATOR<\/h3>\n

The corner office of the Center for Innovative Leadership opens to a glass wall, emblazoned with Furman purple and white graphics. This office offers a home for student ventures, says Bryan Davis, executive director of The Hill Institute. He noted that it can be hard for students to get their business ideas off the ground, especially when other settings offer expensive lease agreements for a co-working environment.<\/p>\n

\"People

People gather in the Crescent Innovation District during its grand opening on Wednesday evening, October 16, 2024. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.<\/p><\/div>\n

Giving students the room to house their startup business in the Furman Innovation Lab, surrounded by resources to support their success, makes it more likely to keep their businesses here even after they graduate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are we doing to retain student entrepreneurs?\u201d Davis asks. \u201cIf you house your business in the innovation center, you can graduate and literally run your company right here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alongside The Hill Institute\u2019s support for startup businesses, Center for Innovative Leadership Executive Director Garrett Stern says the center and Crescent\u2019s facilities help bolster community and graduate programs. Graduate students earning a Master of Science in Innovative Leadership have used Crescent for their \u201cFridays in the Field\u201d program, along with other services to support mature companies and industries.<\/p>\n

So much of the programming that Furman will host at Crescent is intended to be available to the public, Stern says. It offers a centralized location for services that Furman\u2019s institutes provide not just to students, but to any companies looking for innovative approaches to break out of stagnant business models.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is to cover the whole business community,\u201d Stern says. \u201cHow can we accelerate that learning and decrease the risk factors of scaling a business?<\/p>\n

\"Two

Sean Hartness talks with people at the grand opening of the grand opening of the Crescent Innovation District on Wednesday evening, October 16, 2024. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.<\/p><\/div>\n

BUILDING FOR GROWTH<\/h3>\n

Crescent\u2019s site is still under development. Across from the Crescent One building is an outdoor event venue with a covered pavilion. Past that is a four-acre former mill property Hartness acquired when redeveloping his grandfather\u2019s old bottling plant.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives us the opportunity to attract talent to Greenville in a broader sense. Greenville has the foundation to attract entrepreneurs,\u201d Hartness says. \u201cThis is a hub to bring the brightest and best here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mill property gives Hartness and his partners the opportunity to explore the next phase of development. Additional buildings could offer new office space and the chance to explore other innovative workplace designs. He says he hopes the attention Crescent SC is getting will attract other developers to the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know my grandfather would be very proud of continuing our family legacy of giving back to Greenville, because Greenville\u2019s given so much to us,\u201d Hartness says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Innovation Lab Inspires Entrepreneurs and Founders to Dream Big<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":401,"featured_media":37094,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3346,1963,3342],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features-spring-2025","category-furman-magazine","category-spring-2025"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37312"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37939,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37312\/revisions\/37939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}