University Technology Park At IIT Continues Aggressive Growth with $50 Million State of the Art Lab and Office Space
Work began last week on the $50 million Technology Business Center portion of University Technology Park At IIT (UTP). Located on the main campus of Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and made possible through a public/private collaboration, the park 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 Technology Business Center will welcome its first tenants by summer, 2006.
"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."
Last fall, University Technology Park At IIT opened its Business Incubator with tenants Sun Phocus Technology, LLC, and All Cell Technologies, LLC. Since then, software company start-ups, including Cleversafe, Network Black Box, and Air 2 Access have also moved into UTP.
UTP also houses the new Jules F. Knapp Entrepreneurship Center, an umbrella organization for entrepreneurial studies at IIT which provides creative entrepreneurial experiences for students across all academic departments of the university.
At full build-out, University Technology Park will have 1.5 million square feet of space to house mid-sized growing, high-growth, and spin-off 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 also offer services that smaller young companies could otherwise not afford. UTP is designed to accommodate the space needs of those companies that are successful and "graduate" beyond the incubator stage so that they may 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.
The $50 million cost of the Technology Business Center is funded with a combination of Tax Increment Financing through the City of Chicago, and historic tax credits, debt and private equity-- all of which was arranged or provided by Wexford Science & Technology, LLC, the developer of UTP.
"We’re excited to be a part of University Technology Park," said James Berens, President of Wexford. "Our relationship with IIT is another example of the entrepreneurial partnerships we have created with universities, healthcare systems and corporations throughout the country."
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.
