Top RI Innovator-Maker Schartner Leaves Role at Venture Cafe at Wexford Building

Top RI Innovator-Maker Schartner Leaves Role at Venture Cafe at Wexford Building

Tuni Schartner, arguably the leader in building the innovation community in Rhode Island is leaving her as Executive Director of the Venture Café Providence and District Hall Providence at the Wexford Building.

The announcement was made by Daniel Enríquez Vidaña, President of Innovation Studio one of the Hodge-Podge of organizations that have been managing programs in the Wexford Innovation Building.

The loss of Schartner is a loss for the building that has struggled to lease up since it opened in July of 2019.

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Schartner has been one of the most successful RI entrepreneurs in building the innovation network.

First, she helped to launch The Hive in North Kingstown — a successful shared innovation workspace.

Then, Schartner was one of the driving forces in developing Innovate Newport, an incubator workspace environment on Broadway.

And in 2019 she moved to the Wexford building.

The gleaming project is 196,000 square feet and cost in excess of $88 million.  The project will receive about $40 million in taxpayer subsidies, $18.8 million in incentives from the 195 Redevelopment Fund, $15 million in Rebuild Rhode Island Tax Credits, a million in sales tax credits, and the project has a tax stabilization agreement (TSA) with the City of Providence. 

The building opened with multiple floors un-leased.

Then, the pandemic hit.

The building has two floors of shared workspace run by the Boston-based Cambridge Innovation Center.