Chamber wants to create a Startup District

The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce is launching an initiative to create a “Startup District” similar to what exists Silicon Valley and Boston.  They’re searching for a 10,000 square foot facility that basically amounts to a large coworking space with a coffee shop.

In the article, board member Barry Mayer was quoted saying:

“One missing ingredient is an open-space environment where folks can come together, have desk space and collaborate and discuss different business models,”

While, that’s to be debated, it will be interesting to see what come of this as a facility, and more importantly what becomes of this as a startup incubator.

/via The Statesman

UPDATE: Austin Startup has commented on the Startup District and has three things to say about it:

1. Everyone should team up to get this done.
2. The space had better be spitting distance from the Austin Convention Center (ground zero for SXSW).
3. If some government entity is involved in running or controlling it, it will never work.