2009-2010
Kavanagh Named Developer for Next Phase at Gateway Park
The Kavanagh Advisory Group (KAG) of Danvers, a development firm with significant experience building life sciences facilities in Boston's Longwood Medical Area and Kendall Square in Cambridge, has been selected to develop the next phase of Gateway Park and has signed a letter of intent to do so. The agreement gives KAG the opportunity to develop up to four buildings at Gateway Park, which is a mixed-use, master-planned campus in downtown Worcester with a primary focus on life sciences.
"We are pleased that a firm with the proven track record and life sciences development expertise of the Kavanagh Advisory Group will join us in the next stage of development of Gateway Park," said Dennis D. Berkey, president and CEO of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). "The firm clearly recognizes the potential for growth in the life sciences in Worcester and Central Massachusetts." WPI launched Gateway Park in partnership with the Worcester Business Development Corporation (WBDC).
The designation of KAG as the developer for the next phase of the park gives the firm the freedom to operate on the site, and to continue negotiating with potential tenants for new buildings. KAG is already at work securing the financing and other commitments that will be required for construction to move forward. KAG is currently in the design phase for the first building it plans to construct at the park, an 80,000 square-foot state-of-the-art wet lab facility.
"Gateway Park is an environment where academic, research and commercial enterprises thrive together," said John Kavanagh, founder and principal of KAG. "We see strong potential for additional growth at Gateway Park, and we look forward to moving quickly in hopes of breaking ground on a new building this year."
The first complex at Gateway Park, WPI's Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center (LSBC), opened in 2007 and is fully occupied. The $50 million, 125,000 square-foot facility is home to a mix of academic and commercial entities including graduate research programs in biology and biotechnology, chemistry and biochemistry, biomedical engineering, physics, mathematical sciences and chemical engineering. The LSBC contains several advanced research core facilities and a bioprocessing laboratory, which are available for contracted services and workforce training. Also located in the LSBC is Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives (MBI), a world-renowned life sciences incubator facility that houses several start-up companies. Other growing companies at the LSBC include: Blue Sky Biotech, a contract research organization; CellThera, a biotechnology firm conducting tissue regeneration research funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); and RXi Pharmaceuticals, a company co-founded by Nobel Laureate Craig Mello to develop RNAi-based therapeutics.
October 6, 2009
Contact: Michael Cohen, Public Relations Associate, +1-508-868-4778, mcohen@wpi.edu Eileen Brangan Mell, Director of Public Relations, +1-508-831-6785, ebmell@wpi.edu
