NewHavenBIZ

14 n e w h a v e n B I Z | M a r c h 2 0 2 2 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m By Liese Klein W hen he looked at the trends in New Haven's commercial real estate market, David Gold- blum, president of develop- ment firm e Hurley Group, saw an opportunity. Instead of continuing to lease office space at the 8-story, 105,500-square-foot Class B building his company owns at 55 Church St., Hurley would start converting the structure into laboratory space for the city's growing biotech industry. e Elm City Bioscience Center was born. "We were looking for something that would work better financially," Gold- blum said of building for bioscience when compared to New Haven's weak office market. "e numbers seemed to make sense, seemed to fit with our model." Renovations began in August 2021 to install HVAC, electrical and plumbing upgrades to make the entire building suitable for labs. By February, Hurley had signed two tenants totaling about 19,000 square feet: Aztek Bio and Sidu- ma erapeutics, a midstage company founded by a local biotech star, Arvinas founder Craig Crews. More contracts are in the pipeline for the Elm City Bioscience Center, Gold- blum said, and he expects it to be fully leased by early 2023 or 2024. All space is customized for tenants by Svigals + Partners, a local architectural firm that specializes in labs. "We have a steady flow of interested parties," Goldblum said. "And we're very encouraged by the success of other people who are doing the same thing in town. It's great to be part of the devel- opment of what we think will be a really strong ecosystem." Call for state incentives High demand for biotech lab space in New Haven and across the state has prompted the Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA) to launch an initiative to take the industry to the next level. "We've really reached a critical mass of new companies," said Paul Pescatello, senior counsel at CBIA and executive director of the Connecticut Bioscience Growth Council. "ere's a pipeline of companies coming out of the labs of the research universities. e next stage of economic development is really to keep those companies here as they mature to the midstage." More lab space is one of the keys to the continued growth of bioscience in the state, and CBIA plans to ask state lawmakers to set aside funding to sub- sidize new buildings and office-to-lab conversions, Pescatello said. "ere are a bunch of proposals that are percolating out there," Pescatello said. "Probably the best thing we could do at this point would be to put togeth- er a pool of state funds to make avail- able to developers at low interest rates to build lab space." An estimate for the amount of additional lab space needed in New Haven is 50,000 to 100,000 square feet, Pescatello said, "creating enough slack in the system so that some lab space is routinely available for biotechs as they expand or start up." New Haven developers are meeting current needs on a longer time scale but some vacant lab space is required to bump up biotech activity, he added. Another crucial attraction to biosci- ence entrepreneurs is locally-based ven- ture firms, Pescatello said. A CBIA plan now in development proposes a $100 million bond authorization to invest in four or five VC firms of $20 million to $25 million each. e firms would be required to set up a fully-staffed office in Connecticut and provide the state a preferred return in the 7% range. "Bringing in more VC firms to Connecticut is the most effective/ consequential economic development Demand for biotech lab space, VC funding prompts call for state incentives Pharma. & Medicine Manufacturing R&D in Sciences 32% Medical equipment and supplies 28% 12% 12% 8% 4% Medical & Diagnostic Labs Testing Labs Labratory Instrument Manufacturing Irradiation Apparatus Manufacturing - 3% Apparatus Manufacturing - 3% E m p l o y m e n t c o m p o s i t i o n o f C T ' s b i o s c i e n c e i n d u s t r y Paul Pescatello, executive director of the Connecticut Bioscience Growth Council, sees new laboratory space as a linchpin for the growth of New Haven's bioscience industry. SOURCE: CT ECONOMIC DIGEST/DOL HARTFORD BUSINESS JOURNAL FILE PHOTO

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