Chicago City Council Tax Increment Financing Agreement Approval Paves Way for University Technology Park At IIT
Chicago, IL — October 13, 2005 —
A Tax Increment Financing Redevelopment Agreement approved by the Chicago City Council paves the way for the opening of University Technology Park At IIT (UTP), on the campus of Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). The park, made possible by $6 million in state grants and $75 million in public and private funding, including a $25 million commitment from IIT, marks the largest commercial investment in Chicago's South Side since the completion of the new Comiskey Park/US Cellular Field in 1991. UTP will generate approximately 2,500 jobs at all levels of technical, professional and support expertise over the next decade.
The University Technology Park Incubator will open this month with one-third of the space already leased to start-up companies All Cell Technologies, LLC, and Sun Phocus Technology, LLC.
"University Technology Park At IIT is an exciting opportunity to encourage businesses and academia to share their intellectual as well as scientific resources and facilities," said Lew Collens, President of IIT. "UTP will be an important element in the continuing redevelopment of the South Side and the growth of the region’s technology economy."
University Technology Park At IIT will satisfy the need for state-of-the-art lab space for emerging life science, bio and technology companies. "UTP will be a catalyst in positioning Chicago as a hub for emerging technologies," said David Weinstein, President of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center.
University Technology Park, through renovation of existing buildings and new construction, will have 1.5 million square feet of space to house mid-sized growing, high-growth, and spin-off technology companies. UTP will also offer incubator space for emerging new technology companies.
In addition to state-of-the-art wet and dry labs and access to the resources of the world-renowned IIT Research Institute, UTP will offer services that small companies could otherwise not afford. UTP will also offer companies that are successful at the incubator stage adjacent space to expand their business.
"By giving startups access to on-site graduate space, we will be able to retain these companies, and the jobs they create, in the local economy. Too often, such companies move out of the area, and out of Illinois, when they outgrow incubation," said David Baker, Vice President of External Affairs at IIT.
University Technology Park Website
Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting technological university awarding degrees in the sciences, mathematics and engineering, as well as architecture, psychology, design, business and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum prepares the university’s 6,200 students for leadership roles in an increasingly complex and culturally diverse global workplace.
