Business Cluster Development Press Release
Contact:
Jim Robbins 408-938-3921
Carol Lauffer 408-494-4935
Business Cluster Development

San Jose Mayor Gonzales Announces Official Opening Of The San Jose Bioscience Incubator And Innovation Center

Cutting Edge Facility to Grow Bioscience Industry in Silicon Valley

San Jose, CA —July 2, 2004 – Mayor Ron Gonzales and Nobel Laureate Arthur Kornberg recently welcomed more than 100 guests to the official opening of the San Jose Bioscience Incubator and Innovation Center, a 36,500 square-foot facility that will be home to 15-20 bioscience and medical technology companies. The Bioscience Incubator and Innovation Center features shared facilities and equipment with wet labs, dry labs, office space, tissue culture facilities, and conference rooms, all under one roof.

Business Cluster Development, along with the architect and private developer, received commendations from Mayor Gonzales for “playing a pivotal role in developing a plan for the operation and management of the facility”.

The City of San Jose and private developer Mission West Properties combined to fund the $6.5 Million construction, equipment and early operating budget of the Incubator. The Incubator will be operated by the San Jose State University Foundation.

The San Jose Bioscience Incubator and Innovation Center is the fourth in a series of successful business incubators established by the City of San Jose. San Jose State University also operates the other three incubators – in software, international business, and environmental technologies. The return on the City’s investments in these incubators includes the generation of thousands of new jobs, hundreds of millions of dollars of new capital, and successful new businesses that have stayed in San Jose. The Software Business Cluster, winner of the Randall Whaley Incubator of the Year Award in 2,000, was also created by Business Cluster Development. It has been responsible for attracting $475 million in capital, creating 2,500 jobs, and more than 130 new products.

“This cutting-edge facility, which opens for business next month, will attract the best and the brightest of the region’s bioscience business leaders, paving the way for the next generation of biotech in California. The San Jose Bioscience Incubator will help distinguish San Jose as a leader in this new sector,” said Mayor Gonzales. “We used our experience helping other startup companies grow and prosper, to design and build a place custom-tailored for startup companies involved in the convergence of our region’s intellectual strengths – biotechnology, information technology, medical devices and nanotechnology.”