• by Val Brickates Kennedy , March 14, 2014

The Cambridge Innovation Center, or CIC, is finally opening up an outpost in Boston. But --surprise!-- it will be in the stodgy old Financial District rather than the glitzy new Innovation District.

The Boston Globe reported Friday that the CIC has signed a lease for five floors at 50 Milk Street where it plans to house up to 300 tech-related start-ups. In addition to reasonably priced office space, the CIC provides fledgling companies with support services such as access to office equipment, kitchens and conference rooms.

The CIC's choice of address is interesting. The group's Cambridge offices are located in Kendall Square, smack in the middle of the city's vibrant technology district, which borders MIT.  The Milk Street address, meanwhile, places the new CIC outpost in the center of Boston's banking district, where it will be surrounded by a slew of financial and legal services firms, including institutional investor behemoths like Fidelity and State Street Bank. 

In an interview with the Globe, CIC President Brian Dacey said that a key reason the group chose the Financial District over the Innovation District is that it turned out to be a better bang for the buck. 

And let's face it, if you're a cash-strapped start-up, mingling with serious money people every day is probably a good thing.

CIC Boston is slated to open in April.