Construction has started on Newfoundland and Labrador industry group TechNL’s new, $9.6 million Innovation Centre for Remote Operations.

TechNL is creating the centre in response to a pair of reports issued by the provincial government and management consulting giant McKinsey & Company that both recommended the creation of new initiatives to address a lack of communication and collaboration opportunities for entrepreneurs in the the region — particularly those from rural communities.

The provincial Way Forward on Technology plan and McKinsey’s Economic Growth Strategy for Newfoundland and Labrador both describe an innovation landscape in which communications are siloed between industries, and in which founders are grappling with a lack of flexible office space and a generally fragmented startup economy.

“Our vision is to create a world-class ecosystem for remote operations,” said TechNL at the time. “The primary objective of the Innovation Centre (IC) is to address the technology development needs of established and growing companies – especially the ones, but not limited to, pursuing remote operations – in sectors such as ocean, energy, healthcare, mining, fisheries, transportation, and defence.

“The secondary objective of the IC is to increase ecosystem collaboration and the exposure of established and growing companies to the innovation ecosystem stakeholders.”

The centre’s tenants will have access to shared offices, “hot desks,” networking events and light industrial workspaces.

The project is funded jointly by the federal government via the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency with $2.5 million over the next three years and the provincial government providing $7.1 million over the next six years. Other partners on the initiative include Energy NL, Canada’s Ocean Supercluster and Energy Research & Innovation Newfoundland & Labrador, or ERINL.

The new construction comes as a sizeable portion of the Atlantic Canadian startups interviewed by Entrevestor say at least some of their employees work remotely, with many having staff in relatively far-flung locales like Ontario, Massachusetts and California.

On LinkedIn, TechNL CEO Florian Villaumé punned that the construction represents a “solid foundation” for future economic impact.