MANSFIELD — State evaluators expressed concerns last fall that Braintree Business Development Center has not fostered many business start-ups in technology fields, but does well with other start-ups.Ohio's "Third Frontier" Commission recently awarded $450,000 in grants to Braintree, saying staff has done a good job promoting traditional business start-ups and the region needs a boost. In recommending funding, evaluators noted Braintree officials are working toward meeting Third Frontier technology development goals.Braintree, incorporated in the late 1980s as Mansfield Richland Incubator, was among 11 Ohio incubators awarded a share of $4.9 million in Third Frontier money.Braintree officials say the state started having incubators apply competitively for grants. Incubators were given a choice: accept the same amount received last year, or lose $100,000 for services and administrative costs while getting $200,000 in direct funding to client companies.Just over half of the incubators chose the second option, including Braintree. The Mansfield incubator received $250,000 for operating expenses and $200,000 directly for clients.In previous years, Braintree had received $350,000 for operational expenses, using $25,000 to $50,000 of that for direct funding to fledgling companies, said operations director Bob Leach.The direct-to-start-ups money will be used to attract and foster new technology companies in the area, he and Braintree CEO Bob Cohen said. The $200,000 will be used to help small start-ups get up and running more quickly."The additional funding availability has already resulted in an increase in the number of companies," Leach said.Braintree operated on $1.02 million in revenues in 2011 and $766,392 in 2012."The OTF funding is critical to the continued operations of Braintree," Leach said. "Most of the services we provide are free to the company, so we rely on these funds for operational expenses. The additional funds for direct investments to companies will help to attract, seed and make a significant difference in the growth of these companies."Third FrontierThe Third Frontier program was designed to foster technology industries within Ohio. Its focus areas are aeropropulsion, power management, fuel cells and energy storage, sensing and automation technologies, surveillance systems, software for business and health care, solar photovoltaics, shale, advanced materials, medical technology, agribusiness and food processing.While some incubators got high ratings in nearly every area under seven funding criteria used by the state, evaluators expressed concerns about Braintree's tenant pipeline and five-year portfolio.In funding recommendations released Dec. 11, evaluators noted Braintree clearly does not have some of the resources available to larger incubators.Most Ohio incubators are in higher-population areas such as Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati. BioEnterprise, near the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University, benefits from the stream of research and resources that can feed tech start-ups, especially in health care, evaluators said."The Braintree leadership team has expertise in conventional economic development, but little experience in technology businesses. They seem well-suited to support startup companies in an economically challenged region, but the reviewers do not see a strong alignment with the needs of a technology incubator," the funding report said.Braintree had identified six or seven areas it planned to focus on, including agribusiness and food processing, business software, advanced manufacturing, sensing and automation systems, situational awareness and surveillance systems, alternative energy and solar photovoltaics. "The reviewers are concerned that Braintree lacks understanding and capacity to offer support for the broad array of technologies identified," state reviewers said.Evaluators noted Richland County has been hard hit by a loss of manufacturing, with GM's closure in 2010 of its steel stamping plant "continuing to reverberate." Braintree "has provided important support for entrepreneurs in this rural and severely economically stressed community for the past 26 years," theysaid.Braintree staff "have a clear understanding of the challenging nature of the Mansfield-Richland County economic environment, and that sources of highly technical startups are not typically found in their service area," the report said.Evaluators said Braintree's graduate firms employed 47people, but no payroll figures were reported. Technology company tenants at the time the review was done employed eight people with a total payroll of $180,000, according to the state."The positive impact of company and job creation, while modest in comparison with other (Third Frontier) incubators, is comparatively more significant in this region," they said.Braintree officials told evaluators they are reaching out beyond north central Ohio to find start-ups to attract. Because of Mansfield's location midway between Columbus and Cleveland, they said, this area was an ideal location for tenant firms that hadn't found a home in one of those two large cities.Making stridesEvaluators said the incubator is transitioning to be better aligned with Third Frontier technology development goals, is seeking additional tenant companies and asked for reasonable requests for budget line items."Despite relatively weak past performance, Braintree expressed clear understanding of OTF incubator objectives. The local need for economic development support is also compelling. For these reasons, funding is recommended," the funding report said.Braintree officials said evaluators found areas in which every one of Ohio's incubators could improve. The report expressed concern that the Hamilton incubator, which received generally high funding ratings, had 50 percent vacancy.Cohen and Leach said Braintree already has been able to use Third Frontier money to attract and foster start-ups. Twelve companies were tenants when the review was done, and that has grown since to 18, they said."It tends to come in waves. We've got a fairly large group of companies coming in this year," Cohen said. "There will be a bulge of graduate companies three to five years from now.""We are very strong in some areas," Leach said. "None of the 11 technology incubators have expertise in all areas of technology."During grant review, "it was pointed out that we had little experience or expertise in incubating advanced biomedical companies, medical devices and pharma," he said. "We acknowledge these are areas in which we have little expertise, primarily because the companies we most often incubate are not in these industry sectors."Braintree's expertise has been in advanced manufacturing, information technology, agribusiness, food production and some sources of alternative energy, leaders said.ChallengesBraintree is among three incubators across the state that operate as stand-alone nonprofit entities — instead of divisions of much larger institutions such as colleges, officials said."There are many reasons that make this region tougher to foster technology companies as compared to the 3-C's. Most of the challenges are a result of a smaller population base to draw from," Leach said.North Central State College and The Ohio State University at Mansfield work as regional resources to foster business innovation, but "primarily the students need to transfer to larger campuses to begin the process of conducting research," Leach said.Braintree officials said the incubator constantly fosters relationships with organizations such as OSU Tech Transfer and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center to identify and attract tech start-ups.Successful graduate businesses that put down roots in Richland County have included Midwest Aircraft, Goyal Industries, and Graywacke — which settled in Lexington, despite the fact that the brothers running the business live in the Delaware area. Graywacke has returned to Braintree with ideas for other companies, Cohen said.Current tenants include Simply Launch, Knot Profit, InfoGPS Networks and RightTime, which developed a system to measure offender rehabilitation efforts. Two Braintree tenants are creating "functional food" businesses for post-surgery dietary care or nutritional needs.Third Frontier evaluators noted Braintree, located in a former Artesian Plumbing plant where cast-iron bathtubs were made, operates a "physically large" facility with over 61,000 square feet of space.It would be tough to install clean-tech environments (highly filtered spaces where work such as tests on biological materials could be done) in the sprawling former factory, Leach said.Maintaining a facility of that size requires substantial spending just to cover expenses, but gives Braintreea lot of room to grow and customize spaces to facilitate company growth, officials said.