The Cayuga Community College Foundation announced it will receive $150,000 from First Niagara Bank to create an entrepreneurship center in downtown Auburn.

The First Niagara Entrepreneurship Center will be housed within the developing Stardust Entrepreneurial Institute, a previously announced project for 2 State St.

“This is not just a grant in First Niagara's view, but a key investment in an important upstate market,” First Niagara Regional President Greg Gilroy said in a press release, “serving as a catalyst for surfacing new and sustainable forms of economic activity.”

The entrepreneurial institute is a cooperative project of Cayuga Community College and the Stardust Foundation.

The First Niagara-funded renovations will begin this fall, with a target of early 2009 for completion.

“We're pleased and deeply honored by this recognition from First Niagara and by the opportunity that it brings to Cayuga students and to our region,” said Cayuga Community College President Daniel Larson in the press release. “The impact of this gift will be extraordinary.”

The grant is the latest major gift to help the college's development of a entrepreneurship program. The Stardust Foundation of Central New York, the Kauffman Foundation and the Fred L. Emerson Foundation have all made contributions.