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Finally, a Home for Biotech?
Developer Matthews, Yale discussing biotech center for 300 George Street
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Business New Haven
7/13/1998
By: Michael C. Bingham
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While others talk about creating a home for biotechnology-related businesses in Connecticut, New Haven entrepreneur Robert V. Matthews is actually doing something about it.
Matthews, who has made his mark on the local landscape via high-profile real-estate deals and more recently in manufacturing, is close to a deal with Yale University that would house Yale-birthed biotech firms in Matthews' 300 George Street building.
The 550,000-square-foot former SNET headquarters, downtown's largest office building, might seem an unlikely candidate as a life-sciences center. But last month the city of New Haven granted Matthews a zoning variance that would allow for the creation of laboratory space throughout the building. Wet lab space typically costs up to $200 per square foot to construct from scratch.
According to Matthews, Yale Office of Cooperative Research head Gregory Gardiner told him that Yale-related biotech firms could occupy 32,000 square feet of space immediately, 21,000 square feet within six months and an additional 67,000 square feet next year.
In addition, says Matthews, the Yale School of Medicine may itself lease between 50,000 and 100,000 square feet of laboratory space at 300 George for a four- to five-year period.
To help pay for the expensive retrofit to the building, the city of New Haven has requested $12 million in state funds over three years. Yale University has requested an additional $5 million in state loans or loan guarantees to help cover tenant fit-out expenses.
Total costs for the retrofit, according to Matthews, could run as high as $100 million.
“I had an opportunity to do some different things with George Street,” says Matthews of the now-largely vacant blue box. “I want to do as much on the entrepreneurial level as I can. So I've been talking with Greg Gardiner about putting some of his entrepreneurial; start-ups in there, to do their research.
“Will all of those be successful?” Matthews asks. “I'm not sure. But I think a few of those will really come off and grow, which is very exciting.”
Matthews is now meeting with building contractors to retrofit the building's core, including plumbing, ventilation, heating, etc., and hopes shortly to name a contractor for that job, which he estimates will cost some $17 million. Following that work, Matthews estimates the first tenants could occupy the building in as few as five months.
“Connecticut is competing with Maryland, Virginia and a lot of other states,” Matthews says. “What I'm trying to do is to make New Haven the capital of biotech in Connecticut. And we're trying to move Connecticut higher on the biotech ladder. That's a big deal.”
Matthews says he has also been discussing the proposed venture with Connecticut Innovations Inc. head Victor Budnick, whose agency provides economic assistance to technology-based companies, and state economic development czar Arthur Diedrick. “We're looking at what the tenants need - not what Bob Matthews needs,” he says. “I don't need anything. I could make [300 George] office space, and do it very easily and successfully.”
Matthews hopes the project can be a catalyst to spur additional biotech activity in south central Connecticut. “I'd like this to be the beginning of what's going on with biotech in New Haven. This is 550,000 square feet; eventually I think there could be up to 1.25 million or 1.5 million total of biotech space in the New Haven area.
Biotech firms, says Matthews, “have the ability to grow very, very quickly - almost exponentially. I think this can be a real key for New Haven. It could mean a lot of jobs and a lot of people coming in and spending money downtown. You could have 7,000 new jobs down here.”
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