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Trustees of the Cleveland Biotechnology Park ("BioPark") have chosen to pursue CWRU's University West building to house incubator space for start-up companies in biotechnical fields.
Biopark is a cooperative effort involving CWRU, University Hospitals of Cleveland, and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. All three founding members have representatives on the Biopark board, which Interim CWRU President James Wagner chairs.
The Biopark board had reviewed seven potential sites before selecting University West for the incubator, Wagner said. The first phase of the incubator project will involve approximately 40,000 square feet of space. The project is targeted to eventually expand to 200,000 square feet -- and some of this space is likely to be at another location.
Currently CWRU's archive and the Office of the Controller are based at University West. These offices may need to be moved elsewhere to free up space for the Biopark incubator.
CWRU and the other Biopark partners have made a commitment to "facilitate commercialization of biotechnology in the region," Wagner said. "This is a significant first step. We want to commit space and services to launch additional biotech firms."
Wagner noted the cooperative spirit which each of the Biopark founding organizations have exhibited throughout the process. "All of this is being drive by a clear spirit of cooperation, motivated by the universal belief that Cleveland has a real opportunity to be a leader in biotech."
The incubator space is a first phase toward achieving these goals. After infant biotech companies grow in the incubator, but before they have developed enough to support independent headquarters (ideally in the region), these companies could move to multi-tenant facilities which the Biopark may offer in later stages of its own growth.
At both the incubator and multi-tenant facilities, Biopark may offer support services to these growing companies. Examples could include business and legal services such as developing business plans and applying for patents. The Biopark incubator also could include shared research equipment that would be far too expensive for one organization to purchase on its own, but which could be cooperatively purchased and used by several start-ups or other partners.
The Biopark board has arranged for Dorothy Baunuch, the interim president of the Edison Biotechnology Center (EBTC), to supervise the initial Biopark planning. Wagner said he hopes the structure will soon be in place to begin recruitment of a Biopark director.
Locating the Biopark incubator at University West will enable its tenants to interact with tenants of BioEnterprise, a facility which houses growing biomedical and biotechnical companies. BioEnterprise opened at University West in fall 1997.
The $4.3 million BioEnterprise facility is a partnership between Enterprise Development Inc., EBTC, Cleveland Tomorrow, and CWRU. It is designed to provide small biomedical and biotechnical companies with the space and facilities they need to accommodate the next phase of their growth.