Commercial Partnership BRDG Park Opens on Center’s Campus
Rain was unable to temper the excitement of the capacity crowd as the grand opening of building #1 of the BioResearch and Development Growth (BRDG) Park was celebrated with an official ribbon cutting on June 16, 2009. Located on the Center’s campus, the new 110,000 square foot building houses high-tech wet laboratory and office space specifically designed to support the needs of emerging clean-tech, plant and life science businesses. The new facility allows companies from the incubation to post-incubation stages to locate in the region with the equipment and space they need to remain competitive.
Years ago, as part of its goal of enhancing the St. Louis economy, the Center set aside eight acres of its campus with the hope of finding a developer that would build commercial wet lab space for small companies and for related plant science activities. Wexford Science+Technology, LLC saw the opportunity as a perfect fit, and planning for the Park began.
“BRDG Park puts the state of Missouri in the strongest possible position to attract new employers, [it will] help existing Missouri businesses grow, and create the high-tech, high-paying jobs of tomorrow,” said Governor Jay Nixon.
Sam Fiorello, COO and Senior Vice President of the Danforth Center and President of BRDG Park, served as emcee of the event. He noted that BRDG Park tenants benefit from access to some of the Center’s state-of-the-art tools within its core facilities. “It’s not just about the millions of dollars of mass-spectrometry equipment that a small to medium sized company can’t afford, but it’s also about the expertise of someone like Dr. Leslie Hicks, whose interpretation of scientific data generated by the facility is second to none, that adds value.”
The Park will also host St. Louis Community College’s tech training program, which will teach the next generation of lab technicians in a real world, scientific environment. As market conditions warrant, work will begin on two additional buildings, ultimately creating a park that will encompass 450,000 square feet and bring a total of 1,100 permanent, high-paying jobs to the region.
First Annual
Even before its official opening, BRDG Park was already encouraging the development of new business ventures in the plant and life sciences with the first annual Ag Innovation Showcase, taking place on May 18- 19. Jointly presented by BRDG Park, the Danforth Center, the Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise, the Missouri Technology Corporation, and the Larta Institute, the event attracted bright minds from places as far away as New Zealand and Israel.
In addition to informative panels, the showcase served as an opportunity for emerging and established agricultural, plant and life science companies to present their advances to a target-rich environment of potential investors, representatives from established and developing agribusinesses, and a variety of experts in the field of agriculture and bioscience.
The showcase was considered a great success, and the second annual event is scheduled for 2010.
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