ORLANDO, Fla. — The National Entrepreneur Center is moving from the Fashion Square Mall on East Colonial Drive to downtown Orlando to offer a broader range of services to small business owners.
National Entrepreneur Center President Belinda Ortiz Kirkegard talked about the move today during the nonprofit’s Insights and Outlook 2026 event.
The center will move to the Creative Village at UCF’s downtown campus to offer more innovative services. The nonprofit is raising $10 million to pay for the project through its pay it forward campaign.
“Today’s ways of learning and teaching are very different than they were 15 years ago or even 23 years ago when the NEC started. So, this next building needs to be able to accommodate all that technology. So we’re super excited at how we’ll be able to deliver programming more innovatively as well as more effectively,” Kirkegard said.
At today’s event, UCF economist Dr. Sean Snaith gave his economic outlook for 2026, saying Central Florida should continue to grow, despite uncertainties over tariffs and the future of interest rates.
The center helped train and coach 27,000 small business owners last year in Central Florida.
Center leaders hope to be in their new facility during 2026.