Work begins on East Baltimore biotechnology park, at long last

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Apr 17, 2006 by Karen Buckelew

A few shovelfuls of dirt this morning will mark the start of a new future for a struggling East Baltimore neighborhood, as state and city officials, community activists and developers break ground at last on the $800 million Science and Technology Park at Johns Hopkins.The 282,000-square-foot building is the first office and lab space to break ground in the 80-acre project.

When completed in 2008, the facility will house retail space on the first floor, and labs and offices for Johns Hopkins Medicine and private bioscience firms.Already the Hopkins Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences has signed on to occupy 100,000 square feet of the building, and officials have begun in earnest to shop the project to private biotechnology firms nationwide.The project is significant not only to the economically depressed region of East Baltimore, but to the state's aspirations to becoming a national leader in biotechnology, said the secretary of the Department of Business and Economic Development, Aris Melissaratos. We want to say to the world that Maryland's biotechnology community is not just Rockville, not just I- 270, but it expands to the entire state, said Melissaratos, who is scheduled to attend this morning's ceremony on the corner of Ashland and Wolfe streets.The technology park, in conjunction with the University of Maryland, Baltimore's BioPark on the West Side, will make the city and the region attractive to bioscience communities looking to align with esteemed academic institutions, according to Melissaratos.The West Side BioPark's Building One opened last year, the first facility in the 10-building, $300 million project intended to foster partnerships between university laboratories and private companies and give startups a place to roost.To the East Side park, the state has granted $8.5 million from the capital budget in the past two years through bond bills, $4 million from the Sunny Day funding program and $5 million from the next fiscal year's general funds, according to DBED.The park, set to include 1.1 million square feet of life science lab and office space and 850 to 900 residential units, replaces a long-struggling area of East Baltimore, previously dotted with low-income housing and shuttered homes and businesses.The first, 31-acre phase of the project, managed by the nonprofit East Baltimore Development Inc., displaced 394 households and 20 businesses. Residents were given access to a variety of services including relocation assistance, and on average received $150,000 per household for relocation expenses, said Jack Shannon, the nonprofit's president and CEO. Many will not see the fruit of their neighborhood's revitalization; one-third of residents moved to other areas of the city, while another third moved within the general East Baltimore area. The remaining third of residents relocated to Northeast Baltimore, Shannon said.We believe - this is among the most equitable set of benefits for any type of urban renewal plan project in the country, said Shannon.The project last fall broke ground on a 74-unit senior housing building, the first residential units to begin construction, and a 78-unit apartment building referred to as work force housing. The work force housing units target lower income workers who have been forced to live outside the city because of a lack of affordable housing within East Baltimore, Shannon explained.The project is a rebirth of the East Baltimore community, Melissaratos said. Kind of a new look to Baltimore's future.As the first building is in construction for the next two years - under a development partnership between the East Baltimore nonprofit and developers Forest City Science and Technology Group - decisions will be made on the next steps in the project, said Peter Calkins, senior vice president and chief development officer for Forest City's science arm.Officials shopped the project to potential tenants in Chicago last week at BIO 2006, the Biotechnology Industry Organization's annual national conference, and it was warmly received, said Shannon.The Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences, the first tenant to sign onto the building, works to foster collaboration between basic scientists and clinical faculty in various departments to help determine the medical potential of basic scientific discoveries - a process called translational research.The institute is creating new multidisciplinary centers, according to Hopkins, including centers focused on cell migration and metabolism studies. Not all the scientists involved will move to the new facility, but some will, according to Hopkins.Today's groundbreaking is a landmark for officials who have been working on the project for years, said Calkins.This is symbolic of, yes, this is going to happen, and it's going to be a great thing, he said.But Shannon cautioned there's still a lot of work ahead.It's critically important that we get this first building underway, he explained. But with a project of this size and scale, while we're taking a day to celebrate, there's a heck of a lot of work still to do.