As the sun sets on a $2.7 million grant for Lake Elsinore’s highly touted business center, assistance is riding in the 11^th hour to help the city keep the project alive.

During Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, council members were set to vote on a resolution to terminate the $2,670,000 grant awarded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration in 2008 for a “business incubator” on Main Street. The business incubator project was designed to assist start-up and early-stage companies grow successfully and, potentially, bring a nice return on investment to Lake Elsinore, its residents and existing businesses.

But the city has been unable to obtain the additional funding needed to get the project off the ground. As a result, it has been faced with the painful decision to possibly terminate the grant with the EDA as required by the agency.

During Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, however, Lake Elsinore Redevelopment Agency Chairwoman Melissa Melendez sought alternatives. She said she had received recent correspondence from people experienced with getting business incubator projects moving, including expertise out of Colorado, as well as from Lake Elsinore Storm owner Gary Jacobs.

In a July 11 letter from Jacobs to Melendez, he wrote, “To avoid losing such an extraordinary job creation opportunity, I would like to offer my assistance in attempting to procure the necessary matching funds to keep the grant and complete the incubator.”

Jacobs also states in the letter that he has been involved with an incubator project overseas in the Israeli Arab sector.

“Since the incubator was formed in 2003, we have created 21 companies and attracted over $10,000,000 in follow on investments for the portfolio companies. I am also currently raising a $50,000,000 fund to support incubator activities for the next ten years,” Jacobs wrote.

Jacobs is a Del Mar-based businessman and philanthropist, one of four children born to Qualcomm co-founder Irwin M. Jacobs.

In his letter to Melendez, Jacobs states he can make no guarantees, but asks the city to delay its decision to terminate the grant “to allow me the time to possibly find and obtain the additional funding sources that would make the incubator a reality.”

As a result of the new developments, during Tuesday’s meeting the board voted to hold off on terminating the grant for 30 days while the city looks into whether there is fluidity in the grant process. The city had agreed to build the business incubator on Main Street, in the empty lot across from the Cultural Center.

During Tuesday’s meeting, council members directed Planning/Redevelopment Analyst Justin Carlson to look into whether the EDA would be amenable to letting the city use the grant money to house the business incubator project in an existing building, rather than construct new.

The next step is in the process is to see what the EDA will allow. Meanwhile, according to the terms of the grant, Carlson said the city is expected to break ground on the project by September.

Mayor Amy Bhutta was not present during Tuesday night's meeting.