The Hub Powered by PNC Bank

The Hub Powered by PNC Bank at the Dayton Arcade is a one of a kind joint venture between The Entrepreneurs' Center and The University of Dayton designed to drive new venture creation and social innovation and is housed at the Dayton Arcade – a historic landmark built in 1906 and located in the heart of Downtown Dayton. The Hub Powered by PNC Bank is one of the largest university anchored innovation spaces in the country by providing 95,000-square-foot of co-working and private office spaces, meeting rooms, conference areas, pop-up retail opportunities, and classrooms.

As the centralized location for the region’s entrepreneurs and innovators, The Hub provides University of Dayton students, faculty, and staff the opportunity to engage and support local small businesses, startups, and social ventures at the most experiential level. The Hub is home to the UD L. WIlliam Crotty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, which offers a distinctive approach to entrepreneurship education with experiences such as starting their own micro-businesses and regular contact with successful entrepreneurs. The Hub is also the new home for classes in the College of Arts and Sciences, entrepreneurship courses, and the GEMnasium, which is a social innovation incubator for the Institute of Applied Creativity (IACT).

• A space to transform the urban core, create new businesses, and attract & retain talent.
• A space with abundant educational, intellectual, technical, and capital resources.
• A space for passionate innovators to launch, learn, and lead.

In turn, creating a transdisciplinary space & place for innovators to engage with each other and the resources available in the community.

The Hub functions as a critical focal point of activity that contractually, physically, and programmatically merges the region’s foremost entrepreneur-oriented organizations. The space is designed to allow the free flow of ideas and to facilitate “serendipitous collisions” among innovative thinkers while offering practical, flexible, and cost-effective space solutions for entrepreneurs, a model more relevant than ever post-COVID.

User Insight – The Hub is the culmination of years of experience with students, faculty, staff, entrepreneurs, inventors, innovators, corporations, and community leaders to create a transdisciplinary model of incredible experiential learning and commercialization opportunities for enterprising students and citizens.

Cultural Impact – The Hub was designed to transcend the physical confines of the space, to intentionally foster cultural impact by extending the resources, talent, and capital available within The Hub to the broader Dayton community in partnership with the City of Dayton and project developers. Starting with the Greater West Dayton Incubator, this model is designed to create pathways into the startup ecosystem for minority and women entrepreneurs in underserved areas.

Business Impact - The Hub accelerates opportunities for innovators and entrepreneurs to launch their ideas, grow their businesses, and drive prosperity. The Arcade redevelopment has been described by national urban renewal experts as “the most transformative project in America,” it will rekindle Dayton’s heritage of innovation, and create hundreds of new jobs.

Dedicated to supporting all Miami Valley entrepreneurs, The Entrepreneurs' Center brings together resources for new ventures. From small business, to high-tech, to research commercialization, the center offers free, game-changing opportunities to start-ups and scale-ups. The Dayton region's entrepreneurs drive innovation, diversify the region's economy, and fuel prosperity.