BOSTON – An online site-selection tool for biotechnology companies looking to operate or expand in the Bay State was unveiled today at the 2007 BIO International Convention, which runs through Wednesday at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.
The BioSites tool – an expansion of the existing www.MassachusettsSiteFinder.com – was jointly announced by the Mass. Department of Business Development, Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development, a nonprofit public-private partnership, and the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council.
“Finding a place to locate is one of the most important decisions of any business,” said Bob Coughlin, Mass. undersecretary for business development, “and we want to make it easy for biotech companies to find suitable space across the Commonwealth.”
The listing was created by a panel of experts from the architecture, construction, real estate services and biotechnology industries, which began by establishing minimum criteria a property must meet to be suitable for use by biotech companies.
In January, “MAED issued a call for buildings and land that met these criteria and that were available for development or occupancy,” said Susan Houston, the group’s executive director. “The committee then evaluated each property to determine its suitability for inclusion on the Web site.”
“We have over 2,900 acres of land and more than 4.6 million square feet of space throughout the Commonwealth that meet the minimum criteria,” she said, “and this is just a start.”
BioSites also displays the locations of nearby “teaching hospitals, colleges and universities and other life-science companies,” Houston said.
The initiative “is extremely useful for biotech companies,” said Mark Bamforth, senior vice president of corporate operations and pharmaceuticals at Genzyme.
“The new Web site will assist regionally based companies [to] grow within Massachusetts, as well as help those companies from out of state move into the region,” he said. “The properties listed … have the appropriate water, electricity, gas, floor loading and other conditions essential for biotechnology companies.”
Additional information about the Massachusetts SiteFinder and the new BioSites tool is available at www.MassachusettsSiteFinder.com.
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