The past four years have seen a business incubator focused on biotech, life sciences, IT and the service industry pour an estimated $1 billion into the Birmingham, Ala., economy.
Birmingham’s Innovation Depot said employees at the 75 companies in the incubator earned $76 million in 2010, an $8 million increase over last year. The positive numbers were in the incubator’s annual economic impact study released March 9, according to published reports.
Of the 75 companies, 36 are information technology concerns; 12 biotech/life sciences; 11 engineering technology and 12 general business.
Innovation Depot is funded in part by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, one of the state’s major research institutions. The Depot is a consolidation between the nonprofit Entrepreneurial Center and UAB’s Office for the Advancement of Developing Industries, according to UAB.
“I look at this building as the embodiment of the future of Birmingham,” said Susan Matlock, president and CEO of Innovation Depot, when discussing the move to the renovated former Sears building downtown. “And our path to the future is UAB.”
The $17 million facility, three blocks from the UAB campus, has 20,000 square feet of “wet” laboratory space, a high-speed centrifuge, a CytoViva microscopic optics system, a minus-80-degree freezer, and an autoclave, according to the news release.
“Our signage says ‘UAB,’ ” Matlock said. “That is to indicate that this is a partnership. UAB is very important to our success.”
“We’re very pleased that our incubator has moved closer to the university,” said Dr. Richard Marchase, UAB vice president for research. “It puts our faculty members who are entrepreneurs closer to where their companies are going to develop. For people whose full-time jobs are at UAB, it’s now easy to spend a little time over at Innovation Depot ensuring that good progress is being made in the companies that have spun out of their research. It’s a very positive retention and recruiting tool for us.”
The Innovation Depot is a public-private economic development effort funded, in addition to UAB, by the Birmingham regional business community, private foundations, the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, the city of Birmingham and Jefferson County.