A group of local entrepreneurs who have been pushing to develop a more vibrant economy in Groton and New London has made it through to the final round of a state competition for several million dollars to put into effect their ideas.

Thames River Innovation Places, formed initially by Hannah Gant of New London-based Spark Makerspace and Susan Froshauer of the CURE Innovation Commons incubator in Groton, was one of seven entities named Tuesday as a finalist for so-called implementation grants from the state's entrepreneur-boosting organization CTNext.

"It's very exciting," Gant said. "With the expansion of the Electric Boat workforce, this region represents the greatest job growth in Connecticut over the next few years."

The Innovation Places grants will total $30 million over the next five years, meaning about $6 million is expected in the first round of funding. Gant said she expects five or six of the finalists to earn state funding for their projects, and pointed out that Thames River is the only area in eastern Connecticut still up for an award.

"From our bigger cities to our smaller communities, each application we received was comprehensive and impressive, reflecting the drive among our local leaders to more deeply establish Connecticut as a hub for entrepreneurism and business growth," Glendowlyn Thames, executive director of CTNext, said in a statement.

Thames River was joined in the final round by Danbury, Hartford-East Hartford, Central Connecticut (New Britain area), New Haven, Norwalk and Stamford. The areas of the state eliminated for this year were Bridgeport, Meriden, Middletown, Northeastern Connecticut and Waterbury.

According to an overview of the Thames River proposal found online, the local group has six major proposals to transform the region:

[naviga:ul]

[naviga:li]CT Naval Undersea Supply Chain Consortium, which would build a network of companies to "capitalize on the growing national undersea business base."[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]Redevelopment Placemaking Initiative, which would review the functionality of the pedestrian path on the Gold Star Memorial Bridge that links Thames Street in Groton to the Hodges Square area of New London while also looking to rehabilitate buildings in the two locales.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]Cultivator Kitchen, which would "establish a large-scale commissary kitchen to serve as an employee/entrepreneur education and business development vehicle to create new restaurants."[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]Ignite, an organization that would "promote education, events and business development" related to innovation.[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]Community Concierge, which would "provide a comprehensive program to assist employers, with special consideration for Electric Boat, in the recruitment, relocation and retention of employees."[/naviga:li]

[naviga:li]Lean Economic Development Assessment, which would use the University of Connecticut Extension staff to track and evaluate projects related to the Innovation Places grant.[/naviga:li]

[/naviga:ul]

The board of CTNext will conduct site visits to each of the finalists over the next two weeks, including a local stopover May 12, to envision what is laid out in their strategic plans. Grant winners and the amounts of awards will be announced in June.

"We want to show that Groton and New London are united in this," Gant said of the May 12 visit, which will take officials from the CURE incubator to a ride on the Thames River water taxi to the New London transportation center and a tour of Bank Street, winding up at Spark on Golden Street.

l.howard@theday.com