$30M New Orleans BioInnovation Center
Plans remain in place to build a $30-million, 130,000-square-foot BioInnovation Center at 1441 Canal St. although Hurricane Katrina delayed construction until April.
The projected completion date of the new building is mid-to-late 2007.
The project will be financed by the state through the Louisiana Office for Economic Development. In 2002, the Louisiana Legislature appropriated funds to start three biotech laboratories and business incubators around the state — in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport.
The New Orleans BioInnovation Center, designed by Spartanburg, S.C.-based industrial engineering and construction firm Lockwood Greene, will house a wet lab incubator and a Louisiana Gene Therapy Consortium in a 75,000-square-foot Good Manufacturing Practices Laboratory.
The Gene Therapy Consortium will manufacture adult stem cell lines for experiments while the GMP lab, a laboratory fit to produce materials for human use, will perform phase 1 and 2 testing on clinical trial products.
It will be the only facility dedicated specifically to gene therapy," in the South.
Miscenich said the center is expected to create 200 jobs, mainly in research and lab tech positions.
