St. Louis County's $5.1 million biotech incubator could open this winter
St. Louis Business Journal
May 7, 2010
by Rick Desloge
St. Louis County moved a step closer to launching a plant and life science incubator designed in part to help retain displaced research scientists from local companies such as Pfizer and Monsanto.
The county sold $7 million in bonds April 29, and the St. Louis County Economic Council is using $5.1 million of that funding to finance an overhaul and conversion of a Creve Coeur office building. The facility, which will be called the Helix Center, is expected to open this winter.
St. Louis County acquired the 47,000-square-foot office building at 1100 Corporate Square Drive in March for $2.4 million from a real estate partnership. Those funds are coming from the county's share of a $4.4 million grant from the federal Economic Development Administration.
The building also will house a career center where laid-off scientists will have access to job placement resources.
Jackie Davis-Wellington, executive vice president of the St. Louis County Economic Council, is overseeing development of the incubator. She said the county plans to build walking paths between the building, the Danforth Center and the Bio-Research and Development Growth Park, which are all within several hundred feet of each other.
The privately developed Bio-Research and Development Growth Park, also called BRDG Park, houses a number of life science companies, as well as the Nidus Center.
St. Louis has only a handful of locations where entrepreneurs can rent wet lab space for scientific research. They include the Center for Emerging Technologies (CET) on Forest Park Boulevard and the IT Enterprises at the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus.
Davis-Wellington said because the county purchased the Corporate Square building with grant money and plans less expensive finishes, the lab space should be priced lower than comparable space in the region.
"The creation of a new incubator will serve as a feeder to Nidus, BRDG Park -- everyone who's involved in the plant and life science space," she said.
