San Jose: The Competitive Advantage T oday, San Jose is Northern California's largest city, not to mention the 10th largest city in the country, with nearly one million residents. As the capital of Silicon Valley, a region where more than 6,600 technology companies employ more than a quarter of a million people, it's also the nation's leader in patent generation. Economic development strategies have initiated diversified innovations in technology for agriculture, defense, telecommunications, internet communications, and semiconductors.    San Jose is also a premier location to operate a life science business. The city is close to world-class universities with outstanding health care research programs. Additionally, the area is a hub for laboratory space to meet a broad variety of site selection needs, lending a strong competitive advantage in the worldwide health care industry. The San Jose Bioscience Initiative    San Jose as a city has been inspired simultaneously by technological waves and life science progress and development. The next wave is set to be the bio-convergence industry, starting with a $6.5 million investment in the San Jose BioCenter (SJBC) as part of a Bioscience Initiative. The SJBC is a 36,500-square-foot incubator in the Edenvale Technology Park that supports start-ups and conveys the city's commitment to helping new and emerging businesses grow and succeed.    Founded in July 2004, the SJBC is the only bioscience incubator with wet labs in California; it offers world-class wet and dry labs, office space, tissue culture facilities, and specialized common equipment to high-potential companies in the life science industry. The wet lab units provide centralized RO/DI H2O systems, centralized vacuum and fume hoods. Autoclaves, sterilizers, centrifuges, CO2 incubators, dishwashers, dry ice chests, and laminar flow hoods are available as well (sjbiocenter.com).    The Bioscience Initiative is a citywide effort to support new technologies in the life sciences. The successes of this Initiative includes the recent emergence of 17 start-up companies and the development of convergence industry sectors. An estimated $1.2 million has been allocated to the acquisition of specialized equipment, as well as an additional one million dollars in tenant improvements to increase market demand.    San Jose has set a goal of graduating and incubating 45 companies in five years. It is expected that these companies will locate and grow in San Jose and stimulate the growth of a bioscience cluster employing approximately 1,200 people in a diverse range of bio-convergence industry sectors including biotechnology, nanotechnology, medical devices, information technology, diagnostic tools, and drug development.    Thanks to such initiatives, the City of San Jose has an unmatched community of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and professional service providers that all actively support the successful development of new business. The leadership of San Jose is 100 percent committed to helping new business grow and succeed. In the words of Mayor Ron Gonzales: "No other city in the United States can claim more success at starting and growing new business than San Jose. From software technology companies to biosciences, San Jose incubates success. Those already in San Jose know why: We offer a unique community of innovative thinkers, successful investors, and the kind of intellectual capital that generates great ideas." The San Jose Redevelopment Agency    The San Jose Redevelopment Agency (SJRA) partners with business and the community to accomplish economic revitalization in Downtown San Jose, its technology parks and industrial areas, and its neighborhoods. An expert staff works to streamline the site location and development permit processes.    The Agency is also a vital part of the San Jose's Bioscience Initiative process, and has a large role in the ever-expanding life science industry of the city, managing and funding improvements in the fields of health care and biotechnology. The SJRA also retains and supports existing incubators as well as financing the development of the SJBC incubator.    San Jose fosters innovation through strategic investments in the incubator program that supports young and established companies with the resources needed to succeed and grow. These programs are funded and operated by the SJRA and the San Jose State University Foundation (SJSUF).    A $19 million public investment in the Incubator Program has generated over 4,000 jobs and more than $12 million in sales tax revenues over the past 10 years. It has supported companies with experienced teams that commercialize technologies that generate financial and social returns. The San Jose Incubator Program offers such things as:    • Highly talented management teams that nurture local and international engineers, programmers, and scientists;    • State-of-the-art R&D, office and lab space;    • Best-in-class business and financial services;    • Resources, contacts and networking opportunities;    • Industry workshops and training programs;    • Business reviews;    • Investor connections and networking opportunities;    • Access to university faculty and student interns;    • Access to industry experts and service providers in accounting, finance, banking, business development, insurance, legal, marketing and regulatory development.    For more information on how the San Jose Redevelopment Agency can facilitate your site or facility needs please contact Ru Weerakoon at (408) 795-1843 or visit the website at www.sjredevelopment.org.