North Chicago’s Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science has announced plans to build a new innovation and research park that will provide labs and incubator space for faculty and commercial biotechnology startups, as well as national and international life science firms.
The school expects to break ground in September on the first phase of the project, including a four-story, 100,000-square-foot addition to the north side of the campus at 3333 Green Bay Road. Construction will be completed by the summer of 2019, according to a news release from the university.
Two more new buildings could follow the first, which is the result of a public-private partnership. The school is working with the nonprofit TUFF, The University Financing Foundation, to develop and finance the $50 million project, according to the release.
The first phase of the park will be home to as many as 175 researchers focused primarily on neuroscience and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and muscular dystrophy, the school said in the release. It will also host work related to genetic diseases, inflammation and proteomics, or the study of proteins.
Lake County Partners, an economic development nonprofit, estimated the first phase of the project will create 498 jobs and have an annual economic impact of $117 million, according to the news release.
The university’s labs will take up about 65,000 square feet of the new research building, with 34,000 square feet available to lease to startups and midsize companies.
“I think this is going to be an excellent project, not only for the university, but also for the city of North Chicago,” said Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr. after the City Council saw a presentation on the project Monday night.
Ronald Kaplan, the university’s executive vice president for research, said the school intends “to locate industry from across the country and across the world.”
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“The science park is an investment in our research enterprise,” Kaplan, a protein biochemist, said in the news release. “As we accelerate the development of our research and related intellectual property, we’re also creating the innovation epicenter for Chicagoland’s bioscience cluster.”
The university is also working with North Chicago-based SmartHealth Activator to help the school’s faculty launch biotech startups. NeuroLucent, the first company resulting from those efforts, was founded early last year by neuroscientist and Associate Professor Beth Stutzmann and is based on her research of compounds that show promise in halting the advance of Alzheimer’s.
Lake County has the highest concentration of bioscience companies in the Midwest, said Tom Denison, president of SmartHealth, in the news release.
An attempt to reach a school representative was unsuccessful Thursday.
Twitter @lucashammill