A business incubator is planned for Huntly. Officials aim to open next year.
Huntley will be the third municipality in McHenry County to install incubators, joining the cities of McHenry and Woodstock, although officials are still finalizing where the incubators will be located and the project schedule.
The purpose of this program is to help small businesses get back on track. In his State of the County address, McHenry County Board Chairman Mike Buehler called the McHenry and Woodstock incubators “ingenious” and urged other towns to “follow suit.”
Woodstock's incubator is located in the old courthouse, and McHenry's incubator is located at the Riverwalk Shops on the Fox River, informally known as Little Shops. Both incubators opened in his 2023 year. Although Woodstock had space for the incubator within an existing building, McHenry chose to build the incubator new with the help of a large amount of donated materials and labor. . The city of Huntley also appears to be leaning toward new construction, according to renderings shown at the Huntley State of the State address earlier this week.
![A couple walks in front of the newly renovated Old Courthouse Center in Woodstock during a tour of the building on Thursday, July 13, 2023.](https://www.shawlocal.com/resizer/ddzOhZZJiFCnwtJiEgZro1jIpSw=/1440x0/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/6XWFCLEFR5HFVHRCHEC5EGSDWQ.jpg)
Nancy Binger, executive director of the Huntley Area Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber is “very excited” that the incubator is coming to town. He said he expects the companies participating in the incubator to join the chamber. “We really like the idea that these could be the future of Huntly's brick-and-mortar businesses,” Binger said.
The incubator announcement comes in addition to other forms of support the village currently provides, including the Small Business Support Program.
Huntley Village Incubator Project received approximately $975,000 from the office of U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, according to Huntley Village Administrator Dave Johnson. Underwood, D-Naperville, previously represented much of McHenry County in Congress until redistricting after the 2020 Census.