The proposal- Turn the old New Orleans Charity Hospital into a
biomedical business incubator.
The background – For a decade New Orleans has been looking to promote
the biomedical industry as a growth sector for its economy. As new
facilities for medical services are planned and come online there are
concerns about the disposition of legacy buildings. Amongst these is
the old New Orleans Charity Hospital. Concern about the fate of the
building is affecting discussions about the new modern,
state-of-the-art hospital facilities that are more suitable to the
practice of modern medicine than the Depression era, WPA inspired old
Hospital. This proposal seeks to, at once, provide and answer to that
question AND attract jobs and investment that are sorely needed in an
economically depressed and hurricane recovering New Orleans.
The plan – Use Old Charity Hospitals square footage as research space
for biomedical startups. Give over entire floors or wings to research
on a per square footage basis that starts at a very low cost and over
the course of a set term increases to market rate.
The mechanisms – A possible way this can be approached.
1 – An authority is set up to handle the building and research space
applications. For sake of this exercise it is called the Old Charity
Biomedical Incubator Authority. (OCBIA)
OCBIA would be responsible for:
- Basic building maintenance.
- Processing applications for space
- Tenant management
- Building management.
This can be a city-state partnership, a private-state partnership, a
city-private partnership. But whomever the partners were they would be
responsible for restoring basic systems to the Old Charity Building.
The composition of the OCBIA board should be from the research and
financial sectors with a couple seats to represent city and state
interests.
2 – A biomedical start up would apply for space. – There would be a
form that would ask several questions to see if qualifying criteria
were met.
- Type of research.
- Committed funding sources. Grants, venture capitalist, private sources,
- Projected square footage needed both at the beginning and at height
of research. To plan for future expansion of the research project.
- Demonstration of ability to handle build out expenses and first
years lease payments.
A committee of researchers and financial administrators either would
evaluate the proposal on several criteria.
- Long term prospects of success.
- Added value to local economy of successful research.
- Ability of the management team to see research through to conclusion.
- Long term viability of the company.
3- Once chosen the start up would be responsible for:
- The build out of their raw space
- Lease payments
- An annual report on progress of their research
The organization handling the process would be responsible for:
- Providing a basic electric, water and sewerage service as well as
maintaining elevators and common areas.
- Overseeing the build out of each research space to ensure there
weren’t permanent alterations to the building, or that any permanent
alterations didn’t undermine the building.
- Managing tenants, contracting for shared services, like waste disposal.
- Handling disputes between tenants.
4 – The start ups would be housed in the incubator for a set period of time.
After a suitable time, businesses would “graduate” from the incubator
to the local real estate market. This period can be 5 to 10 years.
A condition of participation in the incubator is that upon
graduation they would commit to continue to locate their business in
New Orleans.
The benefits-
New Orleans can be expected to reap several benefits from this proposal
- Biomedical research jobs at good wages for an educated workforce.
- The ability to attract and retain a college educated information workers.
- A revitalized local real estate market for both research space and
market rate housing.
- Enhanced economic positioning and increased economic diversity.
- An adaptive reuse project for an outdated building.
- A new industry built on a foundation of innovation.
