If you’ve wandered around downtown recently, you may have wondered what’s going on with the Hatch building (45 S. French Broad Ave.). And since you know there’s not much we love more than breaking news, we can’t wait to tell you: there’s 40,000 sqft of space (aka, practically an acre) in the building opening up, and it’s going to be filled by the Hatch Innovation Hub.

A new partnership between the Hatch AVL Foundation and Venture Asheville, the Hatch Innovation Hub aims to be the home base for area startups. The space — historically home to some of the city’s fastest growing startups — aims to bring more startups and founders together under one roof to make sure area entrepreneurs get the programming, mentorship + support they need to thrive.

In addition to providing work space for startups, the Hub will offer space for meetings, training, events + education. There’s even going to be a high-tech pitch studio. Plus, with Little Bee Thai and Pollen AVL in the same building, folks will stay connected — plus fed and caffeinated.

Also cool? The new $50 million Pisgah Fund from Dogwood Health Trust and HCA, will have a presence at the hub along with some super cool orgs that will be announced soon.

We don’t know about y’all, but we are pretty pumped about this new development and what it represents for our area.