|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Issue: 1108 Date: 11/17/2011
Become A Fan, Like St. Louis Chinese American News
|
|
CORTEX set to start second phase in spring
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
The city's biggest science park is about to get bigger.
CORTEX is poised to start construction next spring on a $140 million expansion that will nearly double the size of its campus in the Central West End, said president Dennis Lower.
They plan to rehab two industrial buildings and put up a 150,000 square foot new building, with most of the space already committed to BJC Healthcare and Wexford Science and Technology ?a developer of science labs. When done in late 2013, CORTEX expects the 19-acre site to house 1,600 jobs.
It is Phase Two of the massive Cortex redevelopment, a nonprofit joint venture by local universities, BJC and the Missouri Botanical Garden that aims to turn about 240 acres of small factories and warehouses east of Washington University Medical Center into a thriving hub for medical research. The first phase, which included a lab building on Forest Park Parkway and the headquarters of plant science firm Solae Corp., is just about full, said Lower.
"We're at 97% occupancy," he said. "We need space."
They also need a little help from the state.
While private funds will cover much of the project's $140 million price tax, CORTEX and officials from the City of St. Louis plan on Monday to ask the Missouri Development Finance Board for $4.4 million in state tax credits. Those credits will be paired with $5.6 million in credits already issued to CORTEX and the Center for Emerging Technologies ?which CORTEX took over last year ?to raise $20 million. The money will be used t upgrade streets, relocate utilities and build a park that Lower said will serve as a sort of "quad" for the campus, which will sit east of Boyle Ave. between Clayton and Duncan.
"Creating that public infrastructure is very much a requirement by Wexford and BJC to be able to advance," he said. "Without that, they can't pull the trigger." |
|
|
|
