By Cheryl Powell
Beacon Journal medical writer
POSTED: 06:02 p.m. EDT, Jul 19, 2010
State and local leaders are hoping an old, soon-to-be-renovated county building in the heart of downtown Akron can help pump new life into the region's economy.
Gov. Ted Strickland joined city and county officials on Monday to announce a new headquarters for the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron and to designate the region as the state's hub for job creation in the biomaterials field.
By next summer, the institute will be housed within updated space on the bottom three floors of the current Summit County Job and Family Services building at 47 N. Main St.
''The new facility will serve as the cornerstone. . .for health-care and biomedical innovation for our region,'' Summit County Executive Russ Pry said Monday during a news conference at the building.
The $10 million renovation is getting a $2.5 million low-interest loan from the state to help with financing.
Under the deal, the county is selling the building to the Summit County Port Authority for the appraised value, estimated to be $2.5 million, and an additional $190,000 to cover outstanding debt for previous improvements.
The economic-development agency will then issue $6 million in bonds to help renovate the bottom three floors and the basement for the BioInnovation Institute, as well as an Akron office for the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy (NEOUCOM).
The BioInnovation Institute will pay about $620,000 a year to lease the space — an amount that will cover the annual payments due on the bonds and state loan. Eventually, the institute plans to expand into the entire building.
The announcement came exactly four years to the day after Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic first touted the creation of the Biomedical Corridor, an area surrounding the city's three downtown hospitals designated for medical-related economic development.
''The jobs of tomorrow are so vastly different,'' Plusquellic said, and so new economic-development efforts are needed.
The BioInnovation Institute was launched two years ago, when the city's three hospital systems, the University of Akron and the region's medical school came together for research and economic development.
Akron Children's Hospital, Akron General and Summa health systems, UA and NEOUCOM are partners in the effort.
Within a decade, the Akron-area partnership wants to create 2,400 jobs and attract at least $50 million in investments annually in area medical companies.
The initiative pulls together the university's polymer-science research knowledge, the medical college's musculoskeletal expertise and the three hospitals' strengths in orthopedics and other clinical areas.
The goal is to use the region's research strengths to create startup companies that bring jobs to the community, University of Akron President Luis Proenza said.
''Sex is to babies as research and development is to new wealth creation,'' he said.
For now, the BioInnovation Institute's administrators are housed nearby in the United office building at Main and Market streets in downtown Akron.
BioInnovation President and Chief Executive Dr. Frank Douglas called the establishment of a downtown center for the initiative a ''defining moment'' for the region.
Initially, the BioInnovation Institute plans to place administrative offices, a state-of-the-art health-care training facility and the Center for Clinical and Community Health Improvement in the renovated downtown building.
Eventually, the Medical Device Development Center and a biomedical incubator will move there from the Akron Global Business Accelerator.
The institute's Center for Biomaterials and Medicine will be housed in the soon-to-open National Polymer Innovation Center at the University of Akron.
In addition, NEOUCOM will lease space within the renovated facility for research initiatives, President Dr. Jay Gershen said.
The county will lease the top three floors to house some functions of Job and Family Services until the welfare agency's locations can be consolidated at a yet-to-be selected site within the next few years, Pry said.
During Monday's event, Strickland also announced Akron's ''Hub of Innovation and Opportunity'' designation, recognizing the city's focus on developing and commercializing biomaterials for orthopedics and healing wounds.
As part of the designation, the state is providing $250,000 in planning money and development assistance.
Strickland highlighted the hub concept in his State of the State speech this year, saying that Ohio's largest cities should identify and exploit their economic strengths.
''We recognize Akron's place at the center of the economy that provides technology that hospitals and health care needs,'' Strickland said.
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or chpowell@thebeaconjournal.com.
