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Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown
I have to think this is being developed with at least one or two somewhat sizeable tenants in mind.
Penn has a lot of partnerships brewing with Novartis and other pharmaceutical companies from what I know from my personal relationships (i.e. friends who are scientists at Penn). The partnerships are focused on commercialization of discoveries made in Penn Labs...I have to think that there is enough productive work being done in these labs at this point that there might be critical mass to co-locate pharma space nearby to keep the company scientists close to the academics.
This has already happened in Cambridge with Novartis, Sanofi, and others who have only opened facilities in that area in the past ten years and now employ literally thousands. I just checked and Novartis has almost 3,000 employees in Cambridge. Sanofi has 1,600. Biogen has 2,600 and Pfizer has 1,000.
MIT and Harvard were about 10-15 years ahead of Penn in establishing these relationships. In fact, I recall when Novartis built their first building in Cambridge...it may have been only 8 years ago.
Something is definitely happening. And it could be huge. I don't think this contiguous space is being lined up for a bunch of small scale start ups (although that's needed as well). I think these massive blocks are being assembled/proposed/pitched with particular companies in mind.
Here's to hoping.
Now for Google. Time for them to open an office in town as well. Maybe Comcast can help with that.
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It also helps that there has been a settlement in the Dr. June/Penn case in regards to "killing cancer" which has a direct link to Novartis. With that cutting edge research and productive results, one can only hope for continued progress.