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Case # t <br />POTENTIAL BIOTECH INCUBATOR PROJECT <br />By: Mike Mulrooney, Economic Development Consultant <br />Background: <br />One of the proposed projects that staff has been following up on is the Ramsey Bio Business Incubator. <br />This project has been proposed by another Ramsey business named GMI, Inc. GMI provides new and re- <br />manufactured to specification scientific instrumentation and instrumentation service to research <br />universities, medical and forensic investigators, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, <br />clinics, laboratories, chemical analysis and environmental firms in the United States and in more than 50 <br />countries. <br />In addition to sales and service, GMI also provides instrumentation asset management, liquidations, <br />disposals, refurbishing and resale recovery for laboratories, biotech firms, hospitals and health <br />maintenance organizations. The company is located on Bunker Lake Blvd. near the intersection with <br />Sunfish Lake Blvd. The CEO of the company is Mr. Richard Powell. <br />GMI believes that that the demand for incubator space for biotech firms is growing. He envisions the <br />development of a business incubator in Ramsey that is privately owned or is a public private partnership. <br />His desired location is the former Health Quest property immediately adjacent to GMI, Inc. Initial <br />discussions with the city have centered on public participation in the project via site acquisition, land <br />write down and demolition activities. <br />In order to determine the level of any participation by the city, staff has started to investigate what the <br />project costs and market maybe for this type of faciliTy. Staff met with Mr. Powell to obtain a better <br />understanding of his vision for the project. Mr. Powell believes that a project similar to one near the <br />University of Minnesota is what needs to be done. The name of the project is the University Enterprise <br />Laboratories, Inc. (UEL). <br />Staff has met with the management of the UEL and left with very good impression of the project. UEL is <br />a state of the art bioscience incubator designed to support and grow eazly stage bioscience companies. <br />UEL reduces the financial concern many new bioscience businesses face by offering fully functional wet <br />laboratories, office space and access to shared equipment and meeting rooms. The total size of the project <br />is 125,000 square feet. It is located in a building originally built for Rivertown Trading Company. The <br />total project cost for this facility approached $29 million. UEL received $9.125 million in donations from <br />major Minnesota corporations to underwrite a portion of the project cost. The balance of the financing <br />was obtained through banking channels however, the loan was guaranteed by the City of St. Paui. The <br />incubator charges market rate rents in the range of $24 per square foot with additional charges of $11 per <br />square foot for common area operating expenses. The UEL is currently 90% occupied with strong <br />demand for additional space. UEL management believes that a facility in Ramsey could be successful if <br />size and cost is managed correctly. UEL is interested in continued discussions regarding a relationship <br />with the City of Ramsey. <br />As stated eazlier, GMI, Inc would like to see this type of project occur on the former Health Quest site for <br />obvious reasons. There are two questions that immediately surface in relationship to this site. <br />What does the site cost? <br />2. What size project can the site support? <br />