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merging industry clusters in such high-tech fields as life sciences and software engineering are driving demand for a new breed of business park. But more than futuristic laboratory and office space is required to catch the attention of industry players seeking suitable locations in which to research and develop tomorrow’s systems and services. The criteria most critical to prospective R&D tenants are intangible and difficult to measure, including flexibility in lease terms and access to funding sources.
For their part, parks that can deliver a sense of community and synergy with other cluster participants and proponents – universities, industry peer companies, capital sources and economic development groups – stand a better chance of attracting tenants than those listing newness, space design and various bells and whistles as their chief attributes.
Research parks differ in many ways, from size, type and ownership to research specialties, urban versus suburban location and physical infrastructure. The common denominator is the parks’ link to research facilities – university-based or national laboratory facilities, for example. And they foster technology transfer and technology development.
“They exist to push science forward and to be an entrepreneurial culture for the development and transfer of technology,” says William M. Dean, president of the Association of University Research Parks (AURP) and president of the Idealliance Piedmont Triad Research Park, in Winston-Salem, N.C. “A significant mark of a research park is its ability to build competitive clusters,” he adds. “Research parks are a people business because of the intellectual capital that resides within them. They are catalysts for the development of innovation and technology-oriented businesses in a given location.”
Where Industries Are Born
Entirely new industries are conceived and take shape in research parks, which can have a profound economic impact on the surrounding area. Biotechnology in its varied forms is an offshoot of the computer science industry, which has occupied research park space for years. Advances in high-speed computing made possible much of the work on the human genome and other key efforts, which have spurred a boom in the fields known collectively as life sciences.
“This activity builds opportunities for wealth creation and economic development,” says Dean. “The parks are critical because of their ability to deliver a critical mass of technological know-how and to promote area economic prosperity.”
Dean says successful parks have active ties to research under way at university and national or federal facilities, intellectual capital in sufficient supply to attract people and organizations from other areas, project funding sources and appropriate infrastructure in terms of facilities. Just as important, says Dean, is leadership from the local community, the university community and the public sector, which can play a key role in fostering a successful cluster initiative. Patience is important, too.
“Research parks are not an overnight success story,” Dean points out. “It’s very expensive to develop and build them, and you need time and money with which to do that. Also, it’s risky to be involved in high-tech start-ups, and a number of companies won’t make it. But the parks that stayed the course and nurtured the development of their companies, helped fund the ventures, had the right infrastructure and support today are very successful in terms of the economic prosperity they have brought about.”
How do site seekers select a park in which to grow their business? Locating parks with access to the same resources listed by Dean are a good place to start. But there’s more. High-tech and biotechnology start-ups are inherently risky and prone to rapid growth, especially when new rounds of financing become available. Space needs are fluid, requiring a flexible lease structure that allows the tenant to expand or contract quickly. Finding a landlord who is comfortable with such tenant requirements is half the battle.
What the Tenants Expect
“The problem for companies such as ours is that we can’t predict our rate of growth,” says Russ Read, president and CEO of Kucera Pharmaceutical Co., which develops drug-delivery systems using a class of phospholipids that enhance the effectiveness of drugs that treat cancer, HIV/AIDS and other diseases. The company, a spin-off of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, is a tenant in the Idealliance R&D park in Winston-Salem, N.C. “If you’re well financed, then you tend to be less reliant on what the park can offer,” says Read. “But if you’re early in the financing process, then you are more dependent on what the park can offer.”
Among the more tangible R&D park attributes cited by Read as being desirable are an affiliation with major medical centers, incubator facilities to support start-ups, shared equipment, multi-tenant buildings and available build-to-suit space. Ideally, adds Read, a park’s business plan should be non-profit. “For-profit developers don’t have the interest because of the short-term leases and the risks associated with start-ups.”
Still other qualities to keep in mind when identifying suitable R&D locations are the availability of state and local incentives that promote emerging industries and areas already established as centers or clusters of research. “It also takes focus and a commitment on the part of the community to be recognized as a technology hub,” adds Read. This is especially true in the case of Winston-Salem, which is virtually in the shadow of a better-know research park complex, Raleigh-Durham’s Research Triangle Park.
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Where Parks Are Thriving
A growing number of regions across North America – and globally – are being recognized as centers of high-tech innovation, thanks in part to a healthy supply of research parks and a commitment on the part of leaders in the communities to help establish their areas as homes to industry clusters. Beijing, China; Michigan’s Life Sciences Corridor; the greater Tampa/Clearwater/St. Petersburg, Fla., area; Nova Scotia and Alberta in Canada; and southern California are just a few examples.
The latter, particularly the San Diego area, is best known for electronics research and development, telecommunications and life science/biotechnology. That region has fairly well established clusters already in place. The Torrey Pines area north of San Diego is home to many life science companies and others spun out of the nearby University of California at San Diego.
New facilities in R&D parks catering to such companies generally have larger floor plates and are typically one to three stories tall, according to Brian Mulvaney, senior vice president at Voit Commercial Brokerage, in San Diego. “And they can meet the space requirements of a wide variety of users,” he notes. “Biotech companies have the most requirements in terms of R&D space.” Early R&D facilities in the area include the Salk and Scripps Institutes, and plenty of others followed.
What to Look For
“Special buildings are required for the work done by these researchers,” says Mulvaney. “They need de-ionized water, or polished water, with a high purity content, and they need water for injection – the water used in the manufacture of drugs that can be injected into the body safely. And floor loads that used to be sufficient at 80 lbs. per square foot, which was fine for office and some light engineering purposes, does not work when you start equipping the floor with lab benches, sinks, water, hoods and other equipment,” he adds. “That requires 125 lbs.-plus per-square-foot floor loads, and you’ll see that commonly in buildings designed for biotechnology purposes.”
Older R&D buildings were designed with an average of 12 to 14 feet between floors, or clear height, says Mulvaney. The ideal distance between floors in a life science building is now 14.5 to 15 feet. “In San Diego, where about a third of our industry has become life sciences, that is an important factor. It’s not as important in Huntington Beach and other areas, but there is some life science activity in the Irvine area. Outside of southern California,” he adds, “pretty much every state has some life science industry activity, so the numbers I’m using are pretty much becoming the standard.”
HVAC systems, too, can be designed specifically for life science facilities. Computer-controlled variable air volume, or VAV, systems are among the new generation of heating and cooling systems. Zones within the building can be controlled individually to correspond to usage or specific applications. “Energy efficiency, especially in California and other states that don’t have as good a supply of power, has become very important,” says Mulvaney.
A chemistry lab may require 20 air changes per hour, he illustrates, meaning fresh air replaces existing air every three minutes. The new air has to be cooled, which takes a significant amount of energy and cost. “Park developers that can afford it and have the foresight to put in a VAV system actually save the occupants money on their utility costs over time,” relates Mulvaney. “The payback on those systems is generally one to three years.”
Backup generators and uninterrupted power supply (UPS) systems generally are not standard features in R&D buildings; they typically are tenant-improvement items. But lately, some landlords are including these systems as a perk. Fire-suppression systems are evolving, and state-of-the-art parks will have the latest where these systems are concerned. Back-flow valves, for instance, prevent standing water from accumulating in the system’s pipes. And work force amenities are increasingly common, such as basketball courts, picnic areas and sand volleyball courts. Park designers are working to create a campus-like setting, and fiber is replacing traditional T1 telecommunications lines. New parks in many areas are prohibited from allowing wastewater to enter storm drains, so systems are emerging that in effect clean the water before releasing it into the environment.
Science Cities Take Shape
Business parks now in the planning stages have a unique opportunity to make their mark in their communities by incorporating the features deemed desirable by tenants – and the community. Increasingly, the latter has to do with minimizing the park’s impact on the local geography. While this may be more of a concern in non-urban areas, it is true of city-based parks, as well. The Zhongguancun Science and Software Parks are major new projects – “science cities,” in fact – now in development in Beijing, China, that preserve the nearby natural environment and incorporate new woodlands as well as public amenities.
“In today’s society, you have to integrate smart growth principles, which mix residential and commercial components,” says Rick O’Brien, president and CEO of Technology Park/Atlanta, a developer of technology business parks. “Companies are looking for that integration now. A subtle but critically important point is to be in an environment, be it a county or a city, that is pro quality growth. We try very hard to be sensitive to environmental issues. You have to cut down trees to create building pads, but historically, we have been very sensitive to that issue.”
Technology Park/Atlanta is putting the final pieces in place to begin work on a new suburban Atlanta park – The Bluffs of Technology Park, in Cherokee County. Part of the 700-acre (283-hectare) development is a 400-acre (162-hectare) reservoir with natural areas that will be left intact. Building construction in the park will get under way in 2004, says O’Brien, and when fully built out, it will offer 5 million sq. ft. (464,500 sq. m.) of space for as many as 15,000 workers.
Kevin Johns, director of planning, southeast region, at Parsons, a global engineering and construction company, refers to the new project as a science city. A former Cherokee County development official, Johns was instrumental in the conceptualization and design of The Bluffs of Technology Park.
“Huntsville [Ala.] and the Marshall Space Center; Oak Ridge and the Tennessee Valley Authority area; the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina; and the I-4 corridor between Orlando and Tampa will start to develop similarly,” says Johns. “It’s very green, with strict rules on protecting the environment. We’re putting in a 100-acre (40-hectare) extension of the Atlanta Botanical Garden, and technology will be in place for biotech and botanical field work. The trend,” adds Johns, “is to take the best of the sustainable development ideas and of technology and weave it into the natural environment.”
Besides transportation links and academic facilities, an observatory is planned for the park that will have four robotic telescopes for use by students and scientists. “We have tried to package a futuristic environment for the area that is more than just buildings.”
Similarly, Parsons is currently developing a biotech research complex in Pasadena, Calif., that will help that city promote itself as a science city well into the future. This project, too, is being built in such a way that the natural environment is a development asset rather than a hurdle.
There is a deep respect any more for protecting the environment, and that translates into how people want to live and work,” says Johns. “The smart developers know that that is like the upper-income market, and they cater to that demand. These types are parks are becoming the models, and I believe we will see the older parks retrofit and try to make some efforts in that same direction.”
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