Central West End will be home of new biotech building
By Eric Heisler
Of the Post-Dispatch
12/17/2004
Nonprofit group already
has two tenants for
facility at Boyle and
Forest Park avenues.
A Central West End lot that once housed an underwear factory and a shoe plant is about to become the site of a $36 million biotech building.
Cortex, a St. Louis nonprofit group, broke ground on the building Thursday. While Cortex and others dream of a day when St. Louis is a well-established biotech hub, they say a key obstacle now is the lack of specialized buildings for such firms.
That's where the new building at Boyle and Forest Park avenues comes in. By the end of next year, early-stage biotech companies will find a home there, paying lower rents and enjoying proximity to two major research universities, Cortex officials said.
"The goal is that many years from now, when you drive through this area, you'll see many biotech buildings, scores of biotech firms and thousands of new, relatively high-paying jobs," said John Dubinsky, president of Cortex.
The site forecasts what might be St. Louis' future, but it also is an important link to its past.
Over the last two weeks, workers have torn down the empty red-brick warehouse at the site, which was vacated by Markwort Sporting Goods earlier this year. That company occupied the building beginning in the late 1950s, but recently moved to Fenton after selling the building to Cortex.
Before that, the building was a factory for the Moore Shoe Co., and then a plant for the National Underwear Co. Portions of the site also were used in the early 20th century as a dealership for Studebaker Corp. of America and other carmakers.
"You have a site here that was originally used for what were two of St. Louis' major industries - shoes and automobiles," said Lewis Levey, president of real estate development for Cortex. "Now, in 2005, we're coming back and putting it to use for biotech, which we hope will be a part of our future."
Cortex already has lined up two tenants: Stereotaxis Inc. and Washington University Medical School. The rest should be leased by the time the building opens late next year, Dubinsky said.
Cortex is a partnership of Washington University, St. Louis University, the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation, the University of Missouri at St. Louis and Missouri Botanical Garden. The group's goal is to promote biotech development in St. Louis.
The area, like countless others throughout the country, has identified biotechnology as a sector it wants to draw.
To allow for formation of such companies, independent groups have built two incubators for fledgling firms - the Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise in Creve Coeur and the Center for Emerging Technologies in the Central West End.
But that's created a new problem: Where do companies go from there?
Stereotaxis, for example, is currently in the Center for Emerging Technologies. But the growing company, the area's first life sciences firm to go public, is about to enter a new stage.
Unlike in other regions, where the biotech sector is more mature, St. Louis-area developers haven't built speculative buildings to accommodate this type of company, Dubinsky said.
"The private sector here has just not chosen to meet that need," he said. "I think it's just a matter of timing. The commercialization of biotech is much more advanced in those other communities."
The 170,000-square-foot, three-story building is being built by Clayco Construction Co.
Reporter Eric Heisler
E-mail:
eheisler@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8183
