The University of Chicago and private developers are injecting more life into a burgeoning south side Chicago neighborhood with a groundbreaking tech and bio life R&D incubator hub.
The university, Trammell Crow Company and Beacon Capital Partners held a grand opening in September for a 13-storey, 300,000-square-foot tower that includes a “private research university” taking up just over half the space, and that will host a myriad of university and private sector R&D spaces and biolabs. Construction was completed this summer.
The university has collaborated with several private sector research firms “creating new opportunities for our researchers to partner with entrepreneurs, industry, and the broader scientific community to bring transformative ideas to life,” said U Chicago’s Mark Anderson, dean of its biological sciences division.
This will also support “early and growth stage companies.”
Specifically, the university’s science incubator will assist “early-stage deep-tech concepts into commercial opportunities” according to a release.
And six university affiliated companies have signed on: memQ, Exactics, Signl, Cell Therapy, ZipBionexus Tech and Neuro Innovations.
“By embedding researchers and students in an environment designed for crosspollination with startups, corporate partners and fellow scientists, the university is creating new opportunities to accelerate breakthroughs in areas vital to the world’s future, such as clean energy and quantum technology,” U Chicago stated.
The university will occupy the top three floors or about 100,000 square feet.
The ground floor will host a neighborhood – and Chicago – breakthrough: the IBM Corp.’s next-generation modular quantum computer, called IBM Quantum System Two.
The computer will eventually move to the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park at a former US Steel work in southeast Chicago.
The ground floor features retail and nine intermediate floors host Class-A lab and office space, the city’s Southside STEM Station (community outreach to attract disadvantaged students to the sciences) and four levels of above-grade and below-grade parking.
But there aren’t just work-focused activities built into the building’s design. There’s a sweeping fifth-floor terrace called The Lawn with grills, firepits and views over to Lake Michigan as well as access to an interior tenant lounge.
There’s also private terraces on each floor, secure bicycle storage and an indoor bar and lounge.
Known as Hyde Park Labs, it marks the second phase of the new Harper Court, a commercial development with retail, office and hotel tenants along 53rd Street, a long-time commercial but aged strip 10 miles south of the city’s downtown Loop.
The Obama Foundation, still constructing the nearby (President Barack) Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park astride Lake Michigan, has its offices there.
“The university’s lease at Hyde Park Labs reflects its commitment to pursuing breakthrough discoveries through collaboration with leading researchers and by supporting early and growth stage companies,” Fred Seigel, president and Chief Executive Officer of Beacon Capital Partners, said at the Sept. 16 event.
