The lavishly renovated Jefferson Center in UpTown is set to host a showcase innovation conference in June, even as owner ProMedica seeks an anchor tenant to open the building for its intended purpose as a technology center and business incubator space.
A group of Toledo-area tech executives are organizing the inaugural Activate Innovate Conference in the center on June 13, said Brandy Alexander-Wimberly, one of the organizers of the event.
The conference is aimed at inspiring and informing entrepreneurs and innovation leaders on tech trends, such as artificial intelligence, smart mobility, and sustainability, said Ms. Alexander-Wimberly, who is managing partner of Perrysburg-based digital marketing and data analytics company TandemTide.
Featured speakers for the daylong event include Toledo native Ted Souder, one of Google’s earliest employees, State Treasurer Robert Sprague, Adam Levine, CEO of the Toledo Museum of Art, and Scott Colosimo, founder of Cleveland electric motorbike maker LAND Energy.
Tickets are $75 and half off for students.
The conference is the first public event to be held at the Jefferson Center, not including the State of the City address held at the building earlier this month by Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz.
Organizers are hoping to jumpstart interest in the building and the embryonic technology district in UpTown that it sits in.
After a $38 million renovation completed last year, the Jefferson Center was supposed to be a magnet for tech businesses in Toledo led by tenant and building operator Bitwise Industries.
But California-based Bitwise stunned city leaders last Memorial Day on the eve of opening the center. The company ran out of cash, laid off all its employees, including two dozen in Toledo, then liquidated under Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Bitwise had pledged to lease nearly half the Jefferson Center.
ProMedica is now the owner of the building through a limited liability corporation and is on the hook for its debt. ProMedica is the region’s largest hospital system that under former CEO Randy Oostra also became involved in community and commercial development.
Operations and leasing of the Jefferson Center also fell to ProMedica after the Bitwise implosion.
“Come enjoy the conference; we have a great day of programming focusing on all categories of innovation,” said Ms. Alexander-Wimberly during a ProMedica-guided tour of the building Wednesday.
“But we also see this as an opportunity to have an open house for this building. We want dreamers. We want bold thinkers to come and be a part of the resurgence of innovation in Toledo.”
The Jefferson Center, with its classical architecture, has undergone a complete renovation. The building that started as a post office in 1911, then a Toledo Public Schools building, had the middle of its second and third floors taken out to create a beautiful atrium effect that will be visible to conference goers.
It now has 154 offices and suites over the three floors and over 70,000 square feet of usable space. The entire building is 110,000 square feet. The floors have been redone as polished concrete, and the giant arched windows are visible throughout the offices.
About 50 percent of the building will have to be leased before it can open given the expense of utilities, maintenance, and security. The Jefferson Center has 60 parking spaces.
But before the Bitwise demise, arrangements had been made for about 300 spaces in the neighborhood to accommodate the 300 employees that Bitwise envisioned occupying the building.
Keith Instone, founder of Toledo technology company Dexterity UX and a conference organizer, said the group could have chosen a number of locations for the conference. But it wanted the Jefferson Center because it is the prospective anchor of the innovation district in UpTown and needs visibility.
“We had several possible locations in mind,” Mr. Instone said on the tour. “And we said why not shoot for the moon: The Jefferson Center, for us, would be the best place to have it.”
Ms. Alexander-Wimberly said the building isn’t furnished, so the group will have to build a stage for guest speakers and set up chairs and seating for attendees.
She said at least one vendor is interested in having a pop-up shop at the conference to sell T-shirts and swag for the event.
Sponsors are still being sought and currently include Destination Toledo, the Regional Growth Partnership, JobsOhio, and Hylant, a downtown insurance and employee benefits company.
First Published March 27, 2024, 9:34 p.m.
