Patrick
02-08-2005, 12:51 AM
After reading the Sunday Paper this past weekend, I was very impressed with the future plans for the Research Park. Ends up the 5th building, the Food Court, which was built recently, won't be the last building in the complex. No, in fact, the master plan calls for 10 buildings on the 27 acre campus. That's pretty ambitious for such a small tract of land! The new Cytovance Pharmaceuticals Building will be the 6th building on the master plan. A 2nd parking garage will also be built as part of the park.
Cytovance cited out low cost of living as the reasonf or locating here. They said Class A lab space was cheaper here than anywhere else in the nation! It was a deal they couldn't pass up! Plus, being close to the OUHSC provided plenty of educated workers.
Hmmm....again, we see the advantages of having a low cost of living.
Anyways, this is great news. I hope the research park continues to expand. I'd even like to see it someday expand past the 11 buildings currently in the master plan, possibly expanding across 8th Street, towards the North.
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"Research park expansion promises 'Class A' campus
By Jim Stafford
The Oklahoman
Michael Anderson clutched a giant map of the Presbyterian Health Foundation's Research Park and peered out the foundation's boardroom window at the Cytovance Biologics manufacturing plant under construction on the west end of the research park's campus.
Anderson, president of the foundation, found the Cytovance plant on the big poster-board map and pointed to its position.
The Cytovance building should be completed by the end of the year, and the company should have its contract pharmaceutical manufacturing up-and-running by early 2006.
When the Cytovance plant -- the sixth building to be built on the 27-acre campus -- is completed, the research park will have a value approaching $100 million and more than 500,000 square feet of lab and office space.
But the build up of the research park is far from complete. The map Anderson held revealed sites for four more buildings and a second parking garage.
When all is done, the research park will boast 10 buildings that almost form a circle on the west side of Lincoln Boulevard just south of E 8 Street.
"That will give us 1 million square feet of Class A lab and office space," Anderson said. "The valuation at that point would be almost double what it is now."
Princeton, N.J.-based Cytovance selected Oklahoma City and the research park for its $17 million contract pharmaceutical manufacturing operation, a decision that puzzled some players in the biotechnology industry.
"When Cytovance goes out to sell its manufacturing services, people ask, 'Why Oklahoma?'" Anderson said. "
The answer is not so elusive.
Leasing cost for what Anderson calls "Class A" wet laboratory space at the Research Park is about $23 per square foot, far below average costs in some cities that are said to approach $100 per square foot.
Plus, the cost of living in Oklahoma City falls below that of such high-rent biotech districts such as Boston, San Francisco or San Diego.
"Our costs are much lower than those, especially of the seaboard cities, meaning the left coast and the right coast," Anderson said. "And, our science is very good here."
Patrick M. Kelly, vice president for state government relations for Washington-based Biotechnology Industry Organization, said, "That is absolutely some of the best Class A lab space costs per square foot that I have ever seen or heard of."
The Presbyterian Health Foundation was created in 1985 when the nonprofit Presbyterian Hospital was sold to the for-profit HCA Corp. An endowment of about $62 million was established to fund the foundation.
"We immediately sat down a mission that we would fund medical research and translation of that research to the biotech companies to save and enhance the lives of people in Oklahoma and throughout the world," Anderson said.
With that mission driving the foundation's board, the research park was conceived and became a reality when the first building was finished in 1995. Another was added in 2000, followed by new buildings in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
The rapid pace of growth at the Research Park likely will slow after completion of the Cytovance plant, said Carl Edwards, foundation chairman and a managing partner of the Oklahoma City-based commercial real estate business, Price Edwards and Co.
"Frankly, we do not expect the demand for space to be as strong in the next two or three years as it has been in the past six or seven years," Edwards said. "We did not dream that there would be as much demand as there was that would allow us to build as many buildings as we have so far."
Today, more than two dozen corporations and nonprofit entities have their headquarters in the Research Park -- many of them emerging biotech companies that have their roots in research at the nearby University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center or Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.
"The one single reason we are here is that it's right next to the Health Sciences Center and the foundation," Anderson said. "You need to be next to the science."
That proximity enhances the growth of new companies because their founding scientists are nearby and still involved in research.
Anderson points to Zapaq as an example. The company was created to advance the pioneering Alzheimer's research of foundation scientist Dr. Jordan Tang. Zapaq now has a team of scientists working in Zapaq laboratories at the Research Park to develop a drug to combat the disease.
"The more we increase research at the university and the foundation, the more spin-offs we will have," Anderson said. "We want to get the molecules out of the labs and into the marketplace."
Oklahoma's biotech industry is limited largely by the number of scientists at the two research institutions, Anderson said. Together, the medical research foundation and health sciences center claim about 150 National Institutes of Health-funded scientists.
"We hope to see the research at the foundation and health sciences center double in the next decade," he said. "We're very encouraged by Gov. Henry's announcement that we will have the opportunity to participate in a (research) endowment fund."
Cytovance cited out low cost of living as the reasonf or locating here. They said Class A lab space was cheaper here than anywhere else in the nation! It was a deal they couldn't pass up! Plus, being close to the OUHSC provided plenty of educated workers.
Hmmm....again, we see the advantages of having a low cost of living.
Anyways, this is great news. I hope the research park continues to expand. I'd even like to see it someday expand past the 11 buildings currently in the master plan, possibly expanding across 8th Street, towards the North.
---------------------------
"Research park expansion promises 'Class A' campus
By Jim Stafford
The Oklahoman
Michael Anderson clutched a giant map of the Presbyterian Health Foundation's Research Park and peered out the foundation's boardroom window at the Cytovance Biologics manufacturing plant under construction on the west end of the research park's campus.
Anderson, president of the foundation, found the Cytovance plant on the big poster-board map and pointed to its position.
The Cytovance building should be completed by the end of the year, and the company should have its contract pharmaceutical manufacturing up-and-running by early 2006.
When the Cytovance plant -- the sixth building to be built on the 27-acre campus -- is completed, the research park will have a value approaching $100 million and more than 500,000 square feet of lab and office space.
But the build up of the research park is far from complete. The map Anderson held revealed sites for four more buildings and a second parking garage.
When all is done, the research park will boast 10 buildings that almost form a circle on the west side of Lincoln Boulevard just south of E 8 Street.
"That will give us 1 million square feet of Class A lab and office space," Anderson said. "The valuation at that point would be almost double what it is now."
Princeton, N.J.-based Cytovance selected Oklahoma City and the research park for its $17 million contract pharmaceutical manufacturing operation, a decision that puzzled some players in the biotechnology industry.
"When Cytovance goes out to sell its manufacturing services, people ask, 'Why Oklahoma?'" Anderson said. "
The answer is not so elusive.
Leasing cost for what Anderson calls "Class A" wet laboratory space at the Research Park is about $23 per square foot, far below average costs in some cities that are said to approach $100 per square foot.
Plus, the cost of living in Oklahoma City falls below that of such high-rent biotech districts such as Boston, San Francisco or San Diego.
"Our costs are much lower than those, especially of the seaboard cities, meaning the left coast and the right coast," Anderson said. "And, our science is very good here."
Patrick M. Kelly, vice president for state government relations for Washington-based Biotechnology Industry Organization, said, "That is absolutely some of the best Class A lab space costs per square foot that I have ever seen or heard of."
The Presbyterian Health Foundation was created in 1985 when the nonprofit Presbyterian Hospital was sold to the for-profit HCA Corp. An endowment of about $62 million was established to fund the foundation.
"We immediately sat down a mission that we would fund medical research and translation of that research to the biotech companies to save and enhance the lives of people in Oklahoma and throughout the world," Anderson said.
With that mission driving the foundation's board, the research park was conceived and became a reality when the first building was finished in 1995. Another was added in 2000, followed by new buildings in 2002, 2003 and 2004.
The rapid pace of growth at the Research Park likely will slow after completion of the Cytovance plant, said Carl Edwards, foundation chairman and a managing partner of the Oklahoma City-based commercial real estate business, Price Edwards and Co.
"Frankly, we do not expect the demand for space to be as strong in the next two or three years as it has been in the past six or seven years," Edwards said. "We did not dream that there would be as much demand as there was that would allow us to build as many buildings as we have so far."
Today, more than two dozen corporations and nonprofit entities have their headquarters in the Research Park -- many of them emerging biotech companies that have their roots in research at the nearby University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center or Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.
"The one single reason we are here is that it's right next to the Health Sciences Center and the foundation," Anderson said. "You need to be next to the science."
That proximity enhances the growth of new companies because their founding scientists are nearby and still involved in research.
Anderson points to Zapaq as an example. The company was created to advance the pioneering Alzheimer's research of foundation scientist Dr. Jordan Tang. Zapaq now has a team of scientists working in Zapaq laboratories at the Research Park to develop a drug to combat the disease.
"The more we increase research at the university and the foundation, the more spin-offs we will have," Anderson said. "We want to get the molecules out of the labs and into the marketplace."
Oklahoma's biotech industry is limited largely by the number of scientists at the two research institutions, Anderson said. Together, the medical research foundation and health sciences center claim about 150 National Institutes of Health-funded scientists.
"We hope to see the research at the foundation and health sciences center double in the next decade," he said. "We're very encouraged by Gov. Henry's announcement that we will have the opportunity to participate in a (research) endowment fund."