The Center for Innovative Technology expanded to Richmond with a new office

The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), a Herndon, Virginia-based nonprofit corporation created by the state to invest in tech companies, has expanded to Richmond, Virginia, with a new office space.

CIT’s Richmond location is set up at a coworking space called The Gather, in the center of the city’s Arts District downtown.

Announcing CIT now has a local presence in #RichmondVA! Offices located @GatherRVA Arts District | 313 East Broad Street https://t.co/JKoOwAEsqy Outstanding central point to expand outreach, interact w. policy makers & support rapidly growing entrepreneurial ecosystem in #RVA pic.twitter.com/BeuX2hDYDO

— Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (@VirginiaIPC) November 6, 2019

The new office will permanently house the nonprofit’s Richmond area workforce and serve as a remote worksite for any other CIT employees in Virginia. CIT staff members will be on site at The Gather Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

CIT has 28 employees total, with seven living and working outside of the Herndon area. Ed Albrigo, president and CEO of CIT, told Technical.ly that the nonprofit’s team is a “highly distributed and mobile workforce,” and its team has the option to work remotely regularly.

“Most of our employees travel the Commonwealth extensively to carry out our mission of supporting innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth across the Commonwealth,” Albrigo said. “Given the highly mobile nature of our business model, we look for the best talent across the Commonwealth and allow for remote working.”

Albrigo said that CIT can have up to 21 employees and board members working out of its new Richmond office at once. Three Richmond-area CIT employees will work out of The Gather full time. Even though the new office can accommodate more, Albrigo said the nonprofit doesn’t have any immediate plans to hire new employees in the Richmond area.

“Many of our employees meet with people in the Richmond area or pass through Richmond on their way to other locations,” Alrbigo said. “The Gather provides us with flexible, secure meeting and working space and broadband access for not just our Richmond team, but for any CIT staff or member of our board of directors. It fits in very well with our community engagement strategy.”

With this expansion, CIT is also testing a more flexible and cost-efficient office model with The Gather’s coworking offerings. CIT employees will have access to coworking chain’s other five locations throughout the Virginia region. The Gather’s 20,000-square-foot Arts District location also just celebrated its grand opening in September.