The Rest of the Story

overage of technology centers in this issue should not leave the reader with the impression that the only technology centers of note are those in the U.S. — far from it. As we reported in the Site Selection Life Sciences Report in May, Singapore's impressive Biopolis is home to Abbott Laboratories' new R&D center for its nutrition business; Abbott joins numerous tenants already there. At the BIO conference in Chicago in early May, I met with representatives of biotech centers in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Canada, Malaysia and Thailand, to name a few.

The Asian centers are noteworthy for their diverse areas of expertise and proximity to efficient, global logistics channels, not to mention their size: Malaysian developers are working on the 72.5-acre (29-hectare) Bio-XCell biotech park in the Iskandar development in Johor, in southern Malaysia, that will provide 1.125 million square feet (104,500 sq. m.) of purpose-built space for biotech companies; the 80-acre (32-hectare) Thailand Science Park north of Bangkok has 60 companies on site employing 3,000 people. New centers in India and China are no less impressive.

One rarely sees new greenfield technology center developments on this scale in the U.S., where more concentrated university research parks and urban biomed clusters are more the norm. All of the above have their place, and virtually all — no matter what their scale — are expanding to meet demand for space in which to innovate and commercialize.

You, the investor, have a dazzling array of facilities and locations in which to launch new technology-based initiatives. The hard part of a feature on technology centers is their sheer variety. Today one can locate in solar energy parks, nanotechnology centers, aerospace-focused parks and any number of other "theme parks," to borrow a term from the travel and tourism sector. We will share the experiences of investors in technology centers large and small in these pages and in our online Energy and Life Sciences Reports in due course.

The other signature section in this issue is our Green Guide, in which I hope you will find substance, though we're also proud of the style in which it's presented. We grounded this content in material you can use — rankings of areas based on their support of sustainable development, a conversation with DuPont's chief sustainability officer, a visit to an electric car project that will reuse an existing auto plant, and a primer on green incentives. Look for a directory of sustainability service providers at SiteNet.com in the coming days.

While on the subject of online content — I've mentioned the monthly Energy and Life Sciences Reports already — be sure to visit our OnSite travel blog, sitenet.com/travelblog, for entertaining and informative reports from our travels. You'll get to know the publication and IAMC management staff in a new and personal way here, and you'll learn about some places you might want to visit — or not, as the case may be. Take a moment to post a reply if you find an entry particularly useful, or if you have your own experience of a location you read about.

Finally, whether your summer vacation brings you near a science park or not (many have impressive hospitality components), enjoy your personal time with family and friends at home or abroad. Get some rest!