Home > About BNE > Press Room > 2010 Archive > November > Innovative Approach Growth

Taking an innovative approach to growth

Tenants reviving former Trico plant with an emphasis on life sciences

By Matt Glynn
News Business Reporter
November 14, 2010

The Innovation Center in downtown Buffalo has become a magnet for emerging companies focused on life sciences and biotechnology.

The jobs and investment of the 20 firms on site are adding to the economic impact of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, and more companies are coming soon.

It wasn't so long ago that Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus officials were having trouble persuading anyone to take a chance on the place, said Patrick J. Whalen, chief operating officer of the campus.

After renovating the lobby and portions of the fourth floor, where the campus moved its administrative offices early this year, momentum began to build, Whalen said. An injection of state funds helped reduce the cost of lab space, a key expense.

"It all started to feed on itself," Whalen said. "It all started to be like, 'This is the cool place to be, we really want to be here.'"

The Innovation Center has helped the medical campus solve what might be considered a good problem to have.

Facilities like the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences were built on the premise of attracting top-notch researchers whose work would spawn companies and products. But as those companies were formed and grew, less space was left for new researchers to come in.

The medical campus acquired the former Trico Products complex on Ellicott Street to give emerging companies a place to go while staying on the campus, Whalen said. The four-story, 128,000-square-foot center at 640 Ellicott fills just part of the massive Trico facility; a much larger neighboring portion remains idle.

The reuse is also symbolic: Trico's departure epitomized the erosion of Buffalo Niagara's once-thriving manufacturing base, a trend that has forced the region to rethink its economic development targets.

The $25 million Innovation Center is a mix of furnished office suites leased on a month-to-month basis, rented laboratories, and larger research and development space being built out to suit tenants' needs.

Tenants share access to office equipment and amenities, such as copiers, break rooms and conference rooms. That approach keeps their costs down, but there is more to the idea than saving money.

"We want you actually going and getting a cup of coffee and running into another researcher and talking to each other," Whalen said. "Our whole idea here is to get people to talk and collaborate with each other."

One day, the leaders of two different companies were chatting about a federal grant application and what a pain it was to prepare. The one who had done it before offered to let the other use his application as a template. It was collaboration by chance, right outside Whalen's office.

The center hosts "Bagel Fridays" in a common area of the fourth floor, so tenants can gather over breakfast. Mixing with them are members of an "entrepreneurs club," who have access to the center and lend expertise.

The center has also worked out deals with certain tenants whose services, such as sales training for early-stage companies and developing business plans, are a natural fit. In exchange for a break on their rent, they provide an agreed-upon dollar amount's worth of their services each month, which the other tenants can sign up for at no cost.

"Our positioning as a building in the marketplace is really not as an incubator," Whalen said. "When you leave an incubator, (this is) a place for you to go. So there's still some support around."

The first tenant to sign up for an office suite, Advantage Home Telehealth, is already preparing to move into larger quarters in the center.

"It's been great," said Brian Egan, the chief executive officer. "I think the happy surprise when we moved here was, the energy you get from being on the medical campus is phenomenal.'

Advantage employs 10 people and is preparing to grow, Egan said. The company allows for in-home monitoring of patients with chronic health conditions, to spot changes before a trip to the hospital becomes necessary.

Locating in the center, in close proximity to the other institutions on the campus, made sense, Egan said. "Being in the health care space, it's all related somehow."

IMMCO Diagnostics is coming into the center with a different profile. Rather than a start-up, it is a 39-year-old, 200-employee company based in Amherst.

IMMCO is moving its immunogenetics division into the center, with about 25 of its employees. The division performs tissue typing and blood testing for organ and bone marrow transplant donors and recipients.

William Maggio, the chief executive officer, said the location is a good match for the operation. He was also keen on making an investment in the medical corridor, having seen similar clusters of medical facilities in his travels.

"I know what these guys are trying to do is very important," Maggio said. "They're on the right track."

Another important catch for the center is OncoMed, a Long Island-based company which will lease space to compound cancer drugs. The company has also decided to relocate a call center it operates on Long Island, staffed by licensed pharmacists, to the center, adding to its local job count, Whalen said.

Ceno Technologies, which uses space at the Center of Excellence, is also preparing to move into expanded space at the Innovation Center. The company develops high-technology coatings of microscopic particles used to defeat radar, infared and thermal detection.

Along with support from the state, the Innovation Center has received funding from National Grid, the John R. Oishei Foundation and the Small Business Administration, through a grant secured by Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo. "I think this is an example of an investment that works," Whalen said.

Portions of the center are under construction for new tenants, and more labs and office suites are yet to be built. The first floor, which was filled by Chakra Communications, a tenant which the center inherited, is becoming available with Chakra's move to Lancaster.

Whalen said the Innovation Center's collection of tenants, small as some of them may be, are laying a foundation for growth.

"I'm a big proponent of base hits, stop swinging for the fences," he said. "I just think that a more sound policy for investment in economic development is in lots of little companies."