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blank January 2010
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the authority

Venture Accelerator Groundbreaking Sets Stage for Increased Commercialization

Promising bioscience enterprises should be ready to move in to the state-of-the-art, 38,773 square foot incubator by February 2011.

Construction is underway in Olathe on the Kansas Bioscience Park Venture Accelerator, a business incubator building that will accelerate the growth of promising bioscience start-ups in Kansas.

At a December groundbreaking event, KBA president Tom Thornton, Olathe Mayor Michael Copeland, and Kansas State University vice president Ron Trewyn spoke about the internationally recognized private-public partnership that led to the creation of the Kansas Bioscience Park and the expected economic impact of the Venture Accelerator.

Promising bioscience enterprises should be ready to move in to the state-of-the-art, 38,773 square foot incubator by February 2011. The central focus of the facility will be highly flexible laboratories, which will be built in modules that can be leased individually or in small increments then grouped to form larger business blocks as companies grow.

The facility will support the formation and growth of companies in Kansas, in line with the authority’s vision of encouraging industrial spinouts from the K-State Olathe Innovation Campus and other area R&D facilities.

The International City/County Management Association has awarded Olathe a community partnership program excellence award for its Kansas Bioscience Park collaboration with the KBA, K-State, the Olathe School District, Mid-America Nazarene University, and the Olathe Chamber of Commerce. The chamber estimates the park could lead to $150 million in public and private investment and the creation of 3,000 jobs over the next 20 to 30 years.