Last week, the University of Pennsylvania made public its
plans to construct a research park on 23 acres of land formerly owned by DuPont
in the Lower Schuylkill section of Grays Ferry in Philadelphia. The parcel is
now being referred to as "the South Bank."
Our sister site, Flying Kite, has reported extensively on
the long-range development plans for the Lower Schuylkill River, but no
announcement has generated as much public chatter and excitement as the recent
one from Penn; it is just one small ingredient in a much larger campus
development recipe known as Penn Connects 2.0, a so-called master plan
"which has added nearly three million square feet of space to Penn’s
campus since 2006," according to a release.
One of the highlights of the South Bank will be a business
incubator and accelerator called the Pennovation Center. (Current tenants
will remain onsite after renovations begin.) That complex will feature lab
space and a collaborative technology-transfer ecosystem that Penn hopes will
eventually infuse the entire South Bank campus.
According to Ed Datz, Penn's executive director of real
estate, the campus will be available to a wide range of users, from
startups that grow out of university research to those without any previous
university affiliation. The master plan, designed by the
Philadelphia-based firm WRT, creates a framework with initial development
focused on light industrial and flex-use buildings.
"The one consistent is the opportunity to let young,
upstart companies have space -- at a reasonable rate -- to gather, to share
ideas, and to advance their particular discipline," says Datz.
While an exact construction timeline hadn't been revealed,
the multi-phase renovation work at the South Bank site may begin as early as
this fall.
Source: Keystone
Edge
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