Technology incubator assured of federal help
A technology incubator at the former Trico Products plant in downtown Buffalo is experiencing space problems, and Sen. Charles E. Schumer couldn’t be happier.
With the Innovation Center of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus now fully occupied, Schumer visited the former windshield wiper factory Monday to promise that the federal government will help finance efforts to double the facility’s size.
It all comes about, the senator said, from the success of the Innovation Center as a starting place for high-tech companies spawned by the medical research under way at the University at Buffalo and in the burgeoning medical corridor.
Now he wants the Economic Development Administration to provide the same financial and technical aid to the Buffalo facility that it has given to others around the country.
“It’s actually working,” Schumer said at a morning news conference. “It’s not just a pipe dream. We are actually seeing reality.”
Patrick Whalen, chief operating officer of the Innovation Center, explained that after only 15 months, 31 companies are now working under the center’s auspices — employing about 83 people. The idea, he said, is to nurture small firms with only a handful of employees that grow in the incubator and then expand into surrounding Buffalo.
“This building is full,” Whalen said. “We realize the EDA supports buildings like this around the country, and it did not take the senator long to jump to our aid and get on this.”
To create a second Innovation Center in former Trico factory space, Schumer said, he is already pushing the EDA to partner with the medical campus to help the group identify federal funding opportunities and attract new high-tech companies.
He said Innovation Center tenant Medical Acoustics, with a long presence at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, is working on a new technology for respiratory illnesses called the “lung flute.” Medical Acoustics and companies like it have now filled the 128,000 square feet of the facility.
“We’ve had success,” he said. “Now we want to double down on that success and make it bigger and better and larger.”
Schumer noted that Trico, once a major industrial fixture in Buffalo, is long gone. But he said its former plant can exert a similar economic influence by incubating the new companies that will grow once they leave the facility, as well as generating business with other area companies.
“What’s happening at Trico, we hope, is a metaphor for the future,” he said. “We want to build something for the 21st century as Trico was for the 20th century.
“We want to replicate this unique center so Buffalo is the No. 1 destination for companies that bring cutting-edge medical technology to market,” he added.
Schumer said he expects the EDA to get behind his request soon because he is already in consultation with it.
“This is just the kind of project they look for,” he said. “It almost fits them to a tee.”
He said he will seek to link the expansion plan to programs providing technical help, planning and public works assistance, including strategy development, infrastructure construction and revolving loan fund capitalization.
“Bottom line — this is a no-brainer,” the senator said. “I’m going to make sure we use every available tool to help this model for growth.”
“This is one of our great hopes,” he added, “and shame on everyone if we let it die.”
rmccarthy@buffnews.comnull
Article source: http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/downtown/article597937.ece
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