Biotech's promise

City prepared to build core research areas to next level

Memphis Business Journal
December 23, 2005
By Scott Shepard

2005 was a busy year for the city's budding biotechnology effort, with dozens of significant mileposts. But nothing can beat the sheer showmanship of the early hours of Nov. 6 when the 19-story Baptist-Medical Center building was converted into a 50-foot high pile of rubble.

The timetable for imploding the hospital kept changing over time, but in retrospect that was a good thing for the community, says Steve Bares, president of Memphis Bioworks Foundation. The building had to go to make room for new construction of the UT-Baptist Research Park.

"It signifies that we are serious about this," Bares says. "In a practical way, we were already serious, but the feeling reflected back to us was that when the hospital came down, people will know this is for real. Having it come down on schedule and safely shows we have momentum."

The biotech park is the most visible aspect of the local initiative, and site work has already begun on the first two buildings of the park:

- A $27 million regional biocontainment lab being built in partnership with the Department of Homeland Defense. The focus of the Memphis lab will be infectious diseases and their potential use as a biological weapon.

- The UT College of Pharmacy building, which will integrate academics and drug research.

They are both part of more than $3 billion being invested in the Medical District. Elsewhere on the campus, Bares is wondering what to do with the old Holiday Inn building, a 20-story monstrosity at Madison and Pauline which is full of building code problems. The foundation bought the place with the intent of tearing it down.

Meanwhile, Memphis scored three major urban redevelopment grants, an unheard-of pace from a federal program that's now gone. The Uptown project has been in the works for several years, but Memphis also won grants for converting both Dixie Homes and Lamar Terrace into mixed-income housing.

Bares credits Robert Lipscomb, director of the Memphis Housing Authority, for persuading federal officials that they were going to transform a big swath of Memphis, with plenty of private money to back it up.

"The fact that MHA and all the partners were able to attract the investment really tells you that HUD thinks a lot of what's going on in this community," Bares says.

A series of other events are equally significant, though not as visible. Among them were strides by GTx, Inc., toward its drug development. GTx cleared several clinical trial hurdles and could have three new drug applications next year.

"GTx is a great example of our bioscience opportunity, where a local entrepreneur discovers brilliant technology right here, and teams up with the inventor to create a commercial venture that will create new jobs and wealth for Memphis," says Blair Taylor, president of Memphis Tomorrow.

It's easy to look at demolition and construction and equate it with growth, but the real biotech magic, Bares says, is already happening each day, with an indigenous $300 million industry.

"The rest of the world is not waiting for us to build labs."

sshepard@bizjournals.com | 259-1724