The veil of mystery surrounding The Corner will be lifted this week in New Kensington.

The Corner, a Penn State program at 701 Fifth Ave., will host an open house from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday.

The Corner opened in 2017.

“There’s a bit of a mystique about what goes on within these walls and what exactly we do here,” said Alyssa Pistininzi, community operations manager. “We want the community to know that we are here to assist and support new entrepreneurs and existing small business owners, as well as connecting the community.”

Open houses were held weekly before the covid pandemic. This week’s event is the first of what now will be monthly open houses, with extended hours.

Masking while indoors in public areas will be required.

For the open houses, Pistininzi said they’ll partner with local small businesses as a way to support, encourage and showcase them. This month, The Corner is featuring Sweet Tillies, a baklava bakery in New Kensington. For the November open house, set for Nov. 10, Sweet Alchemy, a vegan bakery, will be featured.

During the open houses, The Corner will be open to the public without an appointment and offering the use of its facility.

“We offer several services, including no-cost legal assistance for entrepreneurs, in addition to our co-working space and free small business classes, networking events and speaker series,” Pistininzi said. “They can also learn more about the Digital Foundry and Nextovation, two major initiatives Penn State New Kensington is pioneering in New Kensington.”

The Digital Foundry, currently under construction nearby on Fifth Avenue, is expected to be completed and open in spring 2022. The innovation and manufacturing lab will support education and manufacturing in downtown New Kensington.

Nextovation is an initiative focused on change and revitalization in the new digital economy, targeted at the New Kensington region to help revitalize a “rust belt” region into a thriving “digital belt” economy, said Steve Leonard, operations and program manager of the Digital Foundry.

It will be done by bringing together the community, business and industry, education and local and regional government.

“The goal is to address the digital needs of the various groups to help bring them along into the digital age through education, entrepreneurship, business outreach to help solve digital transformation challenges and events with the local community,” Leonard said.

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