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Miami looking good to firms not wanting to wait out Scripps lawsuits
By Chrystian Tejedor
and Cadence Mertz Staff Writers
Posted May 16 2005
Palm Beach County knows that biotech clusters across the country could be stiff competition as it tries to attract businesses to its stalled Scripps-led biotech campus. But the county might not have counted on competition from an upstart biotech effort in Miami.
Miami could prove to be a drain on the county's grand plans for attracting biotech businesses to its planned campus-like research park. With Scripps Florida bogged down in lawsuits, the buzz it generated has quieted, and the project has lost some of the daunting momentum it once had. Some companies may opt to head farther south rather than wait for the lawsuits to clear.
Miami officials say they don't intend to compete with Palm Beach County. Palm Beach County officials say they hope the Miami project will help the whole region. But some say a little competition is inevitable. Bioscience clusters nationwide are duking it out for companies, sweetening deals with land offers, grants and tax incentives.
"Miami is a good thing for the regional cluster, and it's a challenge for the Palm Beach portion of the cluster," said Thomas Jirovsky, senior managing director of CB Richard Ellis, real estate consultant to Palm Beach County.
Miami has some advantages, too.
For starters, its first building already is under construction and expected to open this year. The University of Miami, a private school, is paying for the new buildings, while Palm Beach County's behemoth is soaking up $800 million in public money.
UM has an established medical school, a key component for a successful biotech cluster.
The Miami project is urban -- near the school and Jackson Memorial Medical Center, downtown restaurants and shopping and major highways. Palm Beach County's Mecca Farms property is well west of Florida's Turnpike in a little-developed swath of the county better known for its wetland preserves than for economic development.
"The long-range potential impact could be huge," Miami Commissioner Johnny Winton said of plans for the city. "That area has been a major job generator in the county, but it has been isolated."
UM's Medical Campus and its partner, Jackson Memorial, occupy a large chunk of real estate in an area of office buildings, hospitals, the county criminal court building and a jail.
Work on the school's new 338,000-square-foot, $90 million clinical research building -- about the size of the four-story headquarters planned for Scripps Florida -- is under way. Completion of a 15-story building, with a 14,000-car garage and a health club, is expected this year. Planners want to see 1,000 researchers and staffers there, conducting clinical trials on new medications.
"We'll have studies about the population and different diseases, pediatric and additional studies funded by the [National Institutes of Health] and the state," said Ron Bogue, UM vice president for facilities and services.
Miami hopes to turn the neighborhood between Interstate 95 and the Dolphin Expressway into a throng of research towers and accessible housing for the thousands of workers expected to flood the area. For biotech companies willing to move in, county- or city-owned land might be available, UM President Donna Shalala said.
The plans could be a major boost in an area hurting for economic development.
The school expects to break ground in June or July on a second building, a 10-story, $50 million laboratory, Bogue said. Fifty-six investigators will study different types of cancers and diseases and conduct surgical research. The building is to open in 2007. A new hospital and outpatient center also are in the works, with construction scheduled for a year from now.
Over three years, the university plans to add 1.2 million square feet of research and office space.
The addition is only a fraction of what Palm Beach County plans on its Mecca Farms property.
Palm Beach County has the advantage of more land than built-out Miami-Dade, said Gary Hines, senior vice president at the Palm Beach County Business Development Board.
County officials say the additional space means a leafy campus setting with housing nearby, a town center, nature areas, and the freedom to design to the county, state and Scripps' grand vision. Critics say Mecca Farms is too remote, with no paved road access, no utilities, and few retailers and services in the nearby.
Still, Miami's success holds some promise for Palm Beach County.
"I think it only enhances the South Florida region's ability to present itself nationally," Hines said. "Could there be some potential competition in the future? Sure, but I think there's much greater possibility of cooperative agreements."
Whether Miami is viewed as a complement or competition depends on the perspective, Jirovsky said.
Regionally, Miami and Palm Beach County make up one biotech cluster. In other states biotech sites may spread over 50 or 60 miles, Jirovsky said. The $369 million Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature funneled to the Scripps project was meant to benefit more than Palm Beach County.
Locally, however, Miami could be seen as competition, particularly while progress on Scripps Florida is in slow motion.
"It's giving Miami the opportunity to attract businesses that otherwise might choose to come to Palm Beach [County]," Jirovsky said.
In a recent report to Palm Beach County commissioners, CB Richard Ellis warned that other biotech companies would not locate on Mecca Farms until the lawsuits were resolved. Likewise, the state is unlikely to fund a hoped-for university campus on the site until a legal resolution is reached, the report states.
In the meantime, Scripps scientists are housed in temporary laboratories built by Palm Beach County on Florida Atlantic University's Jupiter campus. Shalala has offered Scripps more temporary space in the unfinished clinical research building. Scripps declined, according to the university. A Scripps spokesman said he did not know where the matter stood.
"We told them we would do anything supportive of their move to South Florida," Shalala said. "We never made an attempt to move them from Palm Beach. That would be unethical."
The strides made in Miami are not a concern for Palm Beach County, said county Scripps Program Manager Shannon LaRocque.
Scripps is the prize, LaRocque said, and the institute is bound to Palm Beach County.
"I think we're confident we have an agreement with Scripps. We're confident that it's going to become reality," she said.
By Chrystian Tejedor
and Cadence Mertz Staff Writers
Posted May 16 2005
Palm Beach County knows that biotech clusters across the country could be stiff competition as it tries to attract businesses to its stalled Scripps-led biotech campus. But the county might not have counted on competition from an upstart biotech effort in Miami.
Miami could prove to be a drain on the county's grand plans for attracting biotech businesses to its planned campus-like research park. With Scripps Florida bogged down in lawsuits, the buzz it generated has quieted, and the project has lost some of the daunting momentum it once had. Some companies may opt to head farther south rather than wait for the lawsuits to clear.
Miami officials say they don't intend to compete with Palm Beach County. Palm Beach County officials say they hope the Miami project will help the whole region. But some say a little competition is inevitable. Bioscience clusters nationwide are duking it out for companies, sweetening deals with land offers, grants and tax incentives.
"Miami is a good thing for the regional cluster, and it's a challenge for the Palm Beach portion of the cluster," said Thomas Jirovsky, senior managing director of CB Richard Ellis, real estate consultant to Palm Beach County.
Miami has some advantages, too.
For starters, its first building already is under construction and expected to open this year. The University of Miami, a private school, is paying for the new buildings, while Palm Beach County's behemoth is soaking up $800 million in public money.
UM has an established medical school, a key component for a successful biotech cluster.
The Miami project is urban -- near the school and Jackson Memorial Medical Center, downtown restaurants and shopping and major highways. Palm Beach County's Mecca Farms property is well west of Florida's Turnpike in a little-developed swath of the county better known for its wetland preserves than for economic development.
"The long-range potential impact could be huge," Miami Commissioner Johnny Winton said of plans for the city. "That area has been a major job generator in the county, but it has been isolated."
UM's Medical Campus and its partner, Jackson Memorial, occupy a large chunk of real estate in an area of office buildings, hospitals, the county criminal court building and a jail.
Work on the school's new 338,000-square-foot, $90 million clinical research building -- about the size of the four-story headquarters planned for Scripps Florida -- is under way. Completion of a 15-story building, with a 14,000-car garage and a health club, is expected this year. Planners want to see 1,000 researchers and staffers there, conducting clinical trials on new medications.
"We'll have studies about the population and different diseases, pediatric and additional studies funded by the [National Institutes of Health] and the state," said Ron Bogue, UM vice president for facilities and services.
Miami hopes to turn the neighborhood between Interstate 95 and the Dolphin Expressway into a throng of research towers and accessible housing for the thousands of workers expected to flood the area. For biotech companies willing to move in, county- or city-owned land might be available, UM President Donna Shalala said.
The plans could be a major boost in an area hurting for economic development.
The school expects to break ground in June or July on a second building, a 10-story, $50 million laboratory, Bogue said. Fifty-six investigators will study different types of cancers and diseases and conduct surgical research. The building is to open in 2007. A new hospital and outpatient center also are in the works, with construction scheduled for a year from now.
Over three years, the university plans to add 1.2 million square feet of research and office space.
The addition is only a fraction of what Palm Beach County plans on its Mecca Farms property.
Palm Beach County has the advantage of more land than built-out Miami-Dade, said Gary Hines, senior vice president at the Palm Beach County Business Development Board.
County officials say the additional space means a leafy campus setting with housing nearby, a town center, nature areas, and the freedom to design to the county, state and Scripps' grand vision. Critics say Mecca Farms is too remote, with no paved road access, no utilities, and few retailers and services in the nearby.
Still, Miami's success holds some promise for Palm Beach County.
"I think it only enhances the South Florida region's ability to present itself nationally," Hines said. "Could there be some potential competition in the future? Sure, but I think there's much greater possibility of cooperative agreements."
Whether Miami is viewed as a complement or competition depends on the perspective, Jirovsky said.
Regionally, Miami and Palm Beach County make up one biotech cluster. In other states biotech sites may spread over 50 or 60 miles, Jirovsky said. The $369 million Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature funneled to the Scripps project was meant to benefit more than Palm Beach County.
Locally, however, Miami could be seen as competition, particularly while progress on Scripps Florida is in slow motion.
"It's giving Miami the opportunity to attract businesses that otherwise might choose to come to Palm Beach [County]," Jirovsky said.
In a recent report to Palm Beach County commissioners, CB Richard Ellis warned that other biotech companies would not locate on Mecca Farms until the lawsuits were resolved. Likewise, the state is unlikely to fund a hoped-for university campus on the site until a legal resolution is reached, the report states.
In the meantime, Scripps scientists are housed in temporary laboratories built by Palm Beach County on Florida Atlantic University's Jupiter campus. Shalala has offered Scripps more temporary space in the unfinished clinical research building. Scripps declined, according to the university. A Scripps spokesman said he did not know where the matter stood.
"We told them we would do anything supportive of their move to South Florida," Shalala said. "We never made an attempt to move them from Palm Beach. That would be unethical."
The strides made in Miami are not a concern for Palm Beach County, said county Scripps Program Manager Shannon LaRocque.
Scripps is the prize, LaRocque said, and the institute is bound to Palm Beach County.
"I think we're confident we have an agreement with Scripps. We're confident that it's going to become reality," she said.
