Corrections or additions?
(This article by Barbara Fox was published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on
December 2, 1998. All rights reserved.)
Getting Cozy with Rutgers
Propinquity can be important. Or as those in the real
estate business like to say: What’s vital is “location, location,
and location.”
That’s also true for the New Jersey Economic Development Authority,
which happens to be in the real estate business. It owns a 50-acre
research park, Technology Centre of New Jersey (TCNJ), located on
Route 1 South in North Brunswick, practically adjacent to Rutgers’
Cook Campus. When the EDA took over this property, there were some
existing buildings, and the EDA is building more. It leased the first
new building to Merial Ltd, but it needs tenants for a 60,000
square-foot
building now under construction.
“We recognize that these companies can become the Microsofts of
tomorrow,” says Gualberto Medina, commerce commissioner.
So in an effort to attract tenants to its high tech campus, the EDA
is playing to its strength — the nearness of the Technology Center
to Rutgers University. Emerging technology businesses that are tenants
at the center, says the EDA’s director Caren Franzini, can tap
the resources of Rutgers on a fee-for-use basis. In other words, they
can use laboratories, libraries, and scientific equipment, and they
can also interact with Rutgers researchers.
EDA’s announcement about this, made at a press conference in October,
sounds enticing. Francis L. Lawrence, the president of Rutgers,
talked about how productive partnerships between Rutgers, government
agencies, and the New Jersey business community “are important
to the health and vitality of the state economy and to our ability
to help educate the highly skilled work force of the future.”
The flaw in this hoop-de-lah is that partnerships between Rutgers
and high tech businesses are already in place. You don’t have to be
a tenant at EDA’s campus to get Rutgers to work with you. The flaw
was illustrated by the fact that the three poster-child companies
featured at the press conference were not Tech Centre tenants but
were trotted out as examples of the kind of benefits that they are
already getting from Rutgers:
Photosynthetic Harvest Inc. is based in Willingboro butcollaborates with the laboratory of Ilya Raskin of RutgersBiotechCenter to discover and manufacture biologically active compounds fromlive plants (609-835-1600).NUCON Systems Inc. of New York City is collaborating withRutgers’ Center for Ceramic Research to find ways to safely containhigh-level radioactive waste in five-inch thick cylinders withoutseams. Matthew J. O’Connor, president and CEO of NUCON, ispayingRutgers $500,000 for two years of consultations and is consideringa move to New Jersey.Metacrine Sciences Inc., an early stage biopharmaceuticaldrug discovery company based in Bridgewater, has its labs at CookCampus under the direction of Jeffrey D. White, president andchief scientific officer, and Gordon Ramseier, of the Sage Groupas board chairman. It has seed capital from Ronald R. Hahn ofEarly Stage Enterprises LP, based on Route 206. It is developing drugswith applications in endocrine and metabolic type diseases, such asobesity and diabetes.Admittedly, the nearness of the Tech Centre will makelinking with Rutgers much easier. With the campus so close,transportationwill be easier for interns and grad students to work at a tenant firm,and tenants can take advantage of continuing education programs,culturalevents, and conferences. Tenants would be able to rent such high techequipment as electron microscopes and magnetic resonance imagingequipment,and they could tap into animal health care services. Though anyonecan use the walk-in resources of the libraries, tenants could getsupport from the professional librarians. They might find anopportunityto do contract research jointly with university faculty.More tangible benefits of being at the Tech Centre include base rentof $25 per square foot plus a $100 per foot improvement allowanceand a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) program. This program aimsto control the rate of growth in property taxes that the tenants pay.Tenants can also vie for NJEDA’s bond financing, loan guarantees,direct loans, and such financial incentives as preferential, lowerinterest rate financing for second stage companies with products andservices to sell but little traditional collateral.For instance, the Technology Funding program offers loans of from$100,000 to $3 million, with banks providing 75 percent of the loanat market rate and the EDA providing the rest at a below-market fixedrate. It can also guarantee up to 50 percent of the bank’s monies.A $3 million Seed Capital Program offers loans of $25,000 to $200,000to first-stage companies with a product that has a good chance forcommercialization. The five-year loans have a fixed interest of 5to 7 percent, and part of the flexible repayment terms can beroyaltiesand warrants.Again, any company anywhere in New Jersey can apply for theseprograms,but it is safe to say that if you are a NJEDA tenant your applicationwould probably rest on the top of the pile. Recall that other favoritesaying: “it’s not what you know but who you know.”– Barbara FoxPrevious StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
