Business Brimming at bwtech@UMBC Research & Technology Park

By Mark R. Smith, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF



Most denizens of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) simply call it "the building atop the hill." But to those in the area's tech community, it's the former Martin Marietta building, a 120,000-square-foot incubator/accelerator that's 97% occupied.

And right outside of Hilltop Circle, which surrounds the main campus, is the research park. It may have taken a while, but its three buildings are fully leased, with two more on the way.

Early this year, those real estate holdings, strategically located at a division of the state university, were renamed the bwtech@UMBC Research & Technology Park. That designation melds the minds of the tech and real estate communities with those from academia in an effort to produce the technologies of tomorrow.

The recent renaming news encompasses "the changing of the brand," said David Fink, director of entrepreneurial services, who works with the startup companies. "So that's our new umbrella."



Ground Floor

There are three types of companies in the building atop the hill, said Fink. First are those in the incubator that are literally startups, with just a few employees. There are more than a dozen in residence at the facility and "they usually stay for two or three years."

The successful companies, even if they stay in the same physical space, graduate into the accelerator, which is currently home to 15 companies. They are both under the same roof, as "the idea is to progress from early stage to more mature companies," Fink said. "They may stay for a few years or longer in our technology center."

UMBC also has what Fink called "anchor tenants," such as In Vitro Technologies, which was sold by founder Paul Silver for $30 million in 2006 and is the project's biggest success story.

In Vitro and the two other anchors, Boston Life Sciences and Athena Environmental Sciences, joined the incubator in the early '90s; in fact, In Vitro and Athena were initially located in trailers before UMBC bought the former Martin Marietta building on Rolling Road.



In the Name of Progress

While those mainstays have stayed in the mix for more than 15 years, new companies are popping up in the incubator/accelerator as well, said Ellen Hemmerly, executive director of the bwtech@UMBC.

They include APEX/Eclipse Systems, which just leased 1,500 square feet in the incubator and keys on transforming signal processing technology; and a new accelerator company, Next Breath, which just doubled its space by leasing 7,000 square feet. The company works in the nasal drug delivery sector.

The incubator also houses three relatively new companies: Traxion Therapeutics, Foligo LLC and Encore Path. They all operate under the ACTiVATE program, which focuses on teaching technology transfer to professional women who want to pursue technology entrepreneurship [bwtech is currently recruiting mid-career women for next year's class].

"Most companies that have entered the incubator have moved on to the accelerator," said Hemmerly. "Almost as soon as we have that space available in the incubator, it's gone."

"One thing that's important is that we have about 50,000 square feet of wet lab space in our incubator/accelerator, which is what is required for life sciences companies," Fink said. "We attract many early stage life sciences companies to our market, because no other incubator in the Baltimore region has as much wet space."



Movin' On Up

Construction is ongoing at the research park, where a third building with 23,500 square feet opened last August, with the U.S. Geological Survey leasing the entire building.

The other two existing buildings are both owned by Merritt Properties: The first, with 60,000 square feet of space, is fully leased by RWD Technologies; the second is also 60,000 square feet and contains about a dozen companies, three of which moved over from the incubator/accelerator: BD Metrics, GEST and JCET.

Generally speaking, of the companies that graduate, "some move to our research park, and others to other space elsewhere in our market area or elsewhere in Maryland," Hemmerly said. "We haven't lost many out of state."

Today, two more buildings are under development in the research park: One is a 110,000-square-foot spec building that is under construction by Corporate Office Properties Trust that will be ready in June 2008; the other is 100,000 square feet and will be at least 50% occupied by Retirement Living TV. The rest will be occupied by the Erickson Retirement Communities IT group and the corporate data center. It is also being built by Erickson.

And at that point, the land will be gone. "That land was designed for a five-building build-out," Hemmerly said. There is great demand for this kind of space and we would like to find other opportunities close by to do more research park development."

That dilemma is faced by many companies due to the constraints of today's commercial real estate market, where available land is at a premium.

"It is important to have some available space for current company expansion," said Walt Schulz, director of facilities and leasing. "While we have been fortunate in being able to attract quality startup companies, our current dilemma is being able to accommodate the space needs of our current companies and have available facilities for new companies."

Noting a number of incubator grads that still lease space in the incubator/accelerator, Schulz said that "it's a real challenge for a technology incubator graduate to locate affordable and customized space with flexible lease terms. We are hoping to address this issue by constructing a building on the incubator and accelerator site."



Next Phase

Hemmerly also noted that an economic impact study that was conducted in November 2006 revealed that bwtech supports more than 900 direct jobs.

"We were very pleased when we saw the results of the study [by Sage Policy Group], which indicated strong job growth, strong collaborations with UMBC and strong economic returns to the region and the state," she said, adding that those results will double when the two new buildings at the research park come online.

Back up the hill, Fink echoed Schulz's comments about the squeeze for space. Next on the agenda: He, Hemmerly and the other powers that be at the bwtech@UMBC Research & Technology Park will conduct an assessment study to further address the crunch for space.