Press Releases

Source: Palm Beach PostMarch 3, 2007

Torrey Starts Construction As Scientists Sign On

Constructionisn't the only thing on the fast track as the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies plans its $40 million campus in the southwest corner of this young city.

Just six months after setting foot here, the La Jolla, Calif.-based institute's leaders already have started signing on scientists and working to raise venture capital for the new Florida headquarters.During a Friday ceremony to celebrate the start of construction at the campus, institute President Richard Houghten said he has firm commitments from scientists willing to move to the 100,000-square-foot complex, scheduled to open in fall 2008.

He wouldn't name the scientists or specify how many have committed, but he said he's used Port St. Lucie's open spaces as a selling point.

"The roads aren't jammed up, the housing prices are more affordable," Houghten said. "Everybody I've talked to about coming here has said yes."

Houghten plans to employ 189 in Florida within 10 years, with more jobs possible at spinoff companies.

Meanwhile, Alan Kleinfeld, co-founder of Torrey Pines' most mature spinoff, FFA Biosciences, said he met Friday morning with potential investors in Port St. Lucie.

He declined to name them but said he was impressed with the enthusiasm of the investment community in Port St. Lucie -- a city that has no formal venture capital scene.

"Just as fast as this whole development has emerged," Kleinfeld said, "so has the investment group emerged."

Work on the Torrey Pines campus officially started in February, as building contractor Suffolk Construction started driving test pilings into the 20-acre site.

Port St. Lucie is paying for the $40 million campus, and it intends to open it months before two other La Jolla-based biotech outfits plan to open their permanent facilities in Florida.

In January 2009, The Scripps Research Institute plans to open a 350,000-square-foot permanent campus 30 minutes south of Port St. Lucie in Jupiter. The institute is now operating out of 73,000 square feet of temporary space there.

The Burnham Institute for Medical Research, which opted to move to Orlando instead of Port St. Lucie last year, is on track to open its 175,000-square-foot foot campus in spring 2009.

All three institutes were lured to Florida with hundreds of millions of dollars in state and local incentives as part of a push to jump-start a biotech industry. Torrey Pines' package alone totaled about $98 million.

The institute aims to be Port St. Lucie's first U.S. Green Building Council facility and, though it will be just south of the Tradition development's traditionally styled shopping district, it will have a contemporary look, said Jose Bofill of the project's Chicago-based architectural firm, Perkins + Will Ltd.

The four-story building will have tilt-up concrete walls, a large glass atrium and an open floor plan so scientists can interact.

"A lot of the discovery nowadays isn't happening on the bench," said Bofill, who works out of Perkins + Will's Coral Gables office. "It's happening in the stairwell, in the lobby, by the coffee machine."

In addition, Tradition developer Core Communities LLC is talking to national lab-space developers about building a 400,000-square-foot lab-and-office complex adjacent to Torrey Pines.

Houghten said the new campus wasn't only significant for Torrey Pines and Port St. Lucie -- the final product, he believes, will lead to medical advances that will benefit people across the globe. That message was emblazoned on a hulking cornerstone dedicated Friday. It reads: "The research conducted here is dedicated to all mankind."

TorreyPines researches ailments ranging from cancer to Alzheimer's disease.

To city leaders, Friday's ceremony signaled a shift away from Port St. Lucie's legacy as a bedroom community with little economic diversity.

"We now know what economic development is. It's finally here," Mayor Patricia Christensen said. "And folks, don't blink, you don't want to miss anything."