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It was a groundbreaking of a different sort.

Innovation Depot, the new high-tech and biotech incubator for Birmingham, will open in spring of 2007 in the old Sears Building between First and Second Avenue North and 12th and 13th Streets. Since the building is being renovated, there was no actual ground to break, but that didn't stop 150 key players in Birmingham's biotech industry from gathering to celebrate the start of work on the former eyesore that will anchor a new entrepreneurial district downtown.

All deconstruction on the old building is completed, and now work will begin on reshaping the building as well as the future of biotech in the city.

"This is a great day of celebration," Susan Matlock, the executive director of Office for the Advancement of Developing Industries (OADI) and the Entrepreneurial Center, told the crowd. "This 145,000 square foot renovation represents the coming together of OADI and the Entrepreneurial Center. The two programs have had a significant economic impact in the community with 45 companies to date. That impact will increase with one location."

In the last four years, the two facilities have had a combined economic impact of more than $1 billion. Innovation Depot will house 60 to 65 companies when it is completed.

Many of the yellow brick walls have been removed, making way for windows and an entirely new look. The state-of-the-art facility will include 20,000 square feet of wet laboratory space for biotech startups, and a shared laboratory will house common equipment such as an autoclave, a high-speed centrifuge, a –80? freezer and a CytoViva™ microscopic optics system, "things that are most needed, but rarely affordable to biotech startups," according to Innovation Depot literature.

Having so many companies in one location will help make collaboration easier, especially for fledgling companies. "The biotech industry is a very collaborative business," explains Matthew A. Gonda, PhD, chairman of the Biotechnology Association of Alabama. "You may have a great idea, but you can't do it all yourself. There's manufacturing, quality assurance, the FDA, clinical trials … there's so much that goes into this. It's a collaborative business and you need to constantly be doing biz-to-biz."

In addition to the actual space and shared equipment, Innovation Depot will also offer professional business counseling to tenants.

Since UAB is so often the source of ideas that spawn biotech companies, the location of the new facility is another asset.

"We think it will be very healthy to have Innovation Depot so close to the university. Now we're only going to be 10 blocks, perhaps, from Innovation Depot," says Richard B. Marchase, PhD, vice president for research at UAB. "That'll make it much easier for our scientists to maintain an active role both at the university and in these spin-off companies, and I'm confident that the presence of such a facility in town and close to UAB is going to act as a catalyst for the development that was just a little more difficult when we had to drive eight or nine miles out to Oxmoor."

Marchase further explains the importance of UAB's proximity to Innovation Depot: "On the national scene, it is very clear that the centers of biotechnology need to have first class, high-volume research institutions in the same community. They are the breeders of the ideas that give rise to spin-off companies. And we do have this very large biomedical portfolio here at UAB that totals probably $400 million just in bio-medicine. So with that kind of base, it makes it very attractive both for spin-off companies who are generated within the university as well as to have people … who, if they are going to relocate and think about the biotech sector, they're going to want to do it in a place where there's an active research program going on. I really do believe we are this huge asset in terms of attracting and maintaining a presence in biotech."

Innovation Depot offers many benefits for the community as a whole, as well as for the biotech industry. "We're excited about the possibilities," says Birmingham Mayor Bernard Kincaid. "They're taking an eyesore for two decades and transforming it into a workable building. We expect to see a lot of development to follow."

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