From Site Selection magazine, March 2004
BIO PARKS
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From Site Selection magazine, March 2004
BIO PARKS
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Baltimore Incubating Bio Park Duo
ast side, west side, biotech research parks are going up all around the town in Baltimore. Two major bio parks are in the works that figure to enhance Maryland's already strong presence in the field. Maryland's biotech industry has been ranked as the third most concentrated among U.S. states and includes more than 300 companies, but until now, most of those companies' facilities have located outside its largest city and around the metro Washington, D.C. area. While plans call for the two parks to eventually offer a combined 2.8 million sq. ft. (260,120 sq. m.) of bio space, developers say the presence of two major research institutions – the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and Johns Hopkins University – gives the city an unparalleled cachet in luring biotech firms of all sizes. On the city's west side, University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), broke ground in January 2004 on the UMB BioPark. UMB plans include a business incubator and a collaboration center in the complex. On Baltimore's east side, East Baltimore Development Inc. (EBDI) is building the East Baltimore Life Sciences & Research Park (a working name), part of a larger rehabilitation of the city's east side. Construction was set to begin in February on the first 120,000-sq.-ft. (11,148-sq.-m.) building of the park, which will eventually include about seven to eight buildings and 800,000 sq. ft. (74,320 sq. m.) of lab and office space. Jane Shaab, UMB's senior director of business development, says the park will be reflective of the well-funded research at the university by both corporations and federal labs. "We see companies clustering here that are already sponsoring research on campus," Shaab says. "We believe they will want to have some commercial lab space here so the feel of collaboration will be more intense." Shaab says the first building will house two floors of incubator and collaboration space used by small startups and spinouts from the university. She says the top three floors of the six-story building will likely house mature, post-incubation firms. The second building, set for construction when the first is leased, will likely be developed around an anchor tenant. Publicity generated by Baltimore's sudden wealth of bioresearch parks has generated considerable interest among potential tenants. Shaab says about 14 firms are interested already, and the first tenants will probably be announced this spring for the building, which is set for completion at the end of the year. "We're very optimistic the first building will be leased quickly," says Jim Berens, president of Townsend Capital, developer of the project. "It's a great economic development project for the west side of town." Shaab says the relationship between the UMB BioPark and the EBDI park will be highly complementary. UMB is about 18 months ahead in its effort, while the EBDI park will be much larger, with 2 million sq. ft. (185,800 sq. m.) of life sciences space. East Baltimore Life Sciences & Research Park will be adjacent to Johns Hopkins University and will create an estimated 8,000 jobs after its 10-year construction period. Jack Shannon, EBDI president and CEO, says the park's proximity to Johns Hopkins bodes well. The university is a partner in the park and its president, William Brody, is a member of the EBDI board. "We will be able to market to a broader array of life science and technology companies than perhaps other regions might be able to," Shannon says. "We've worked closely with a number of partners and the Battelle Institute to gain a finer understanding of strengths that exist at Johns Hopkins and ways we might leverage their reputation for excellence." Shannon describes the park as an ambitious, but achievable, real estate development. EBDI is currently assembling parcels of land and choosing a development team for the first quarter of the 80-acre (32-hectare) project. Shannon anticipates a mix of large and small companies will find the park attractive. Infrastructure Key
Charlie Dilks, a consultant to the industry and a former vice president of Philadelphia's City Science Center, says strong infrastructure, chiefly wet lab space, is among the keys to successful development of a biotech research park.
To Parks' Success "Companies want a variety of flexibility and research parks should offer immediate availability, sometimes on a spec basis, to a variety of multi-occupancy wet labs," Dilks says. "Most of these companies are small and need a variety of support services that can be provided either by a university or government agency that allow them to focus on technologies and not worry about administrative matters." Vernon George, president of Hammer, Siler George Associates, a Silver Spring, Md., consulting firm, says, "The idea is that both clinical and pure research generate product concepts that can either be a basis for a business startup or will be sufficiently related to the product focus of existing companies that they will want to move there," George says.
George says biotech parks tend to be in urban areas since major medical schools tend to be in large cities. Also, infrastructure is largely already in place in these areas, he says. Construction of biotech space is much more expensive than most industries. "You've got to equip them with high-capacity fiber optics, you often need redundant power and air-handling equipment," George says. "Wet lab facilities are very expensive." Virginia Experiences Success
George says it's essential that a university leader or medical school take charge in development of a research park and recognizes it is important to the university's mission.
"Everyone gives it lip service, but it needs a sustaining effort," he says. One such highly regarded university leader is Gene Trani, president of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. George refers to him as the "father" of the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park. By all accounts, the Virginia park has been a major success and regularly draws interest from universities and medical centers seeking to develop their own parks. Trani says he followed the advice of George's firm, which includes: community involvement, connection to a major research strength of the university and a location near a major medical center. "We have followed [George's advice] with reckless abandon," Trani says. "We now have eight buildings with almost 600,000 sq. ft. [55,740 sq. m.]. Tenants include a mix of startups, major international firms, non-profit companies and government labs." The park now has two satellite parks with available space in suburban Richmond. The White Oak Park in Henrico County is a developed park aimed at attracting both biotech and other high-tech firms. The Meadowville Technology Park, a greenfield site in Chesterfield County, has 325 acres (132 hectares) available for biotech development. Both satellite parks await their first biotech tenants. Living Microsystems is one of the start-up firms to recently locate in the Virginia park. The company, which specializes in pre-natal genetic testing through the isolation of fetal cells, was founded in the San Francisco area in 2002, but found costs there too high. Founder Mike Grishom says he selected the Virginia research park because of lower costs and its proximity to major research facilities at VCU and the University of Virginia. "We have the opportunity to connect with some of the other companies in the park, exchange ideas with other biologists and talk with other CEOs about issues such as raising capital," Grishom says. "The park is set up nicely where we don't have to invest a lot of capital in fixed equipment and we are able to use office equipment and wet lab resources. For a little start-up like us, it makes a big difference." Grishom says commercialization of Living Microsystem's product, which offers promise to reduce the need for amniocentesis, may happen in late 2005 or early 2006. Boston, one of biotech's bastions, is home to BioSquare, another research park widely viewed as highly successful. Established in the early 1990s at Boston University,
Will Research Parks
Most observers agree that biotechnology will continue to be a growth industry with government and corporate dollars flowing into research projects. But some in the sector are beginning to raise concerns that too much research space is being developed at once. That topic will be discussed during the Association of University Research Parks' BioPark 2004 conference in San Francisco in June.
Exceed Demand? "It's a question of how deep is the market," Dilks says. "Some parks are huge. The question is, are there enough companies to fill the parks? That doesn't mean there is an over-capacity of wet lab space, but to build complete parks sprouting to a million square feet [92,900 sq. m.] immediately might not be realistic. There's too much space at one time." 
Robert T. Skunda, president and CEO of the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park, says parks must be planned and focused with gradual build-outs. Initiatives that create a critical mass will succeed, he says. "What we are seeing now are a number of examples of trying to create an instant industry with major projects," Skunda says. "This industry looks for more than bricks and mortar. It's looking for the benefits of clustering near a major research institution and it's looking for venture capital. There are a lot of ingredients required in the maturing process." 
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