Serious Games Institute expanding, Mason Enterprise Center closing

It’s time to find new office space.

The Mason Enterprise Center, a business incubator at the Science and Technology Campus of George Mason University, will close June 30. In its place will be an expanded Virginia Serious Games Institute, which is currently located in the campus’ business incubator.

In addition to the gaming institute, the center housed eight clients, known as residents, and all have relocated to new office spaces. The center’s virtual clients – those who claim the center’s street address as their own and use the center’s conference room space for up to eight hours per month – have been offered space at other Mason Enterprise Centers in Leesburg, Warrenton, Springfield, and Fairfax.

“We’re working with our partner, George Mason University, to define what the next step is for the Mason Enterprise Center in Manassas or Prince William County,” said center director Renne Younes.

It’s not yet clear where, or if, the center will relocate in the region. Manassas Economic Development Director Patrick Small says such a business incubator would benefit Downtown Manassas, but would not say if he or anyone from the city is in talks with the university to relocate the center to the city.

The closing campus business incubator is located inside Innovation Park, a developing center for bio science and technology firms. In the future, another incubator catering to these types of firms could pop up.

“You can see the future opportunities when you see these kinds of incubators mature.  Firms like life sciences and serious online games incubate and then move out into their own space.  So you can really see how the industries start to prosper,” said Prince William County Economic Development spokeswoman Ginny Person.

Once companies graduate from the incubator, the hope is they acquire office or lab space in Innovation Park and spur economic development.   However, there are no plans currently in the works to create a third incubator at Innovation Park, added Person.

A Mason Enterprise Center once located in Woodbridge closed in 2013. Some of the most successful centers, such as the university’s business incubator in downtown Leesburg, are located in walkable neighborhoods, added Younes.

The Serious Game Institute, known as SGI, recently released new training simulators for those work in the healthcare and firefighting fields. 

George Mason University last month changed the name of its campus outside Manassas from “Prince William Campus” to “Science and Technology Campus of George Mason University.”