Doug Edgeton
In downtown Winston-Salem, 230 acres of concrete is being transformed into a bustling research and business development. Already, the Piedmont Triad Research Park contains 554,000 square feet of lab space and provides hundreds of jobs for Triad residents.
Wake Forest University and its Health Sciences CEO Richard Dean drove much of the growth in the last few years. Dean retired as Wake Forest Health Sciences CEO in June, leaving big shoes to fill in the leadership post. Douglas L. Edgeton, M.B.A., M.P.H., stepped into that spot in November. The new leader spoke with Boris Hartl about the opportunities and challenges facing the Piedmont Triad Research Park.
What are the biggest challenges you face in managing and developing the Piedmont Triad Research Park?
At PTRP, we are always preparing for the next opportunities that will propel the Park into further expansion and growth. The biggest challenges are with the structural development and making well-timed decisions to best manage costs and the natural expansion and retraction of the marketplace. From infrastructure plans to land acquisitions and project collaborations, we continue to seek and secure funding for this 230- acre development in downtown Winston-Salem. We are encouraged by the community’s commitment to provide affordable space for developing life sciences companies within the Research Park to validate their R&D and to bring new ideas to healthcare.
In Mid-December, Wake Forest University Health Sciences joined with the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and other key contributors to celebrate the grand opening of the Wet Lab LaunchPad™ in the Piedmont Triad Research Park. The community vision was to provide a catalyst for growth in biotechnology with affordable commercial laboratory space currently in demand for our region. Wake Forest Health Sciences agreed to allocate space within PTRP for this venture and we are pleased to report that two tenant companies have already been announced, Carolina Liquid Chemistries and Tengion. Discussions are currently underway with additional companies and we expect all of the three labs to be occupied soon. The next challenge for PTRP will be to provide these companies who ‘launch out’ the right space at the right time to expand and grow.
Do you view the proposed $1 billion North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis as a major bioscience competitor for the Piedmont Triad, or will the campus provide opportunities for the Triad to partner with the campus and even benefit from its presence?
Growing biotechnology across the state of N.C. will only help the state be more competitive in this global economy. At PTRP, we believe that we are in a unique position to build upon a strong infrastructure with diverse technologies, centers of excellence and many years of healthcare experience. As each research park develops, the differentiator will be the expertise of technologies. As the NC Research Campus begins to grow and expand their technologies such as in nutraceuticals, there could be opportunities for us to complement that work with our research.
With the development of research parks becoming common across the country, how does the Piedmont Triad Research Park set itself apart from competitors? Just as each individual has a unique fingerprint, the people who reside in the PTRP community make us unique. We have knowledgeable people doing world-class research and most importantly we believe that we have the right mechanism in place to move an idea from the bench to the bedside. This will make an impact in the success of our Research Park development moving forward. The NCBC Centers of Innovation such as the Center of Innovation for Nanobiotechnology will provide opportunities for us to collaborate within the state and beyond to better move ideas to market. Unique collaboration opportunities with institutions in close proximity to PTRP such as Wake Forest, Winston- Salem State University, Forsyth Tech, N.C. School of the Arts and Salem College is also a distinguishing factor.
Does being fully integrated in a city's downtown help?
PTRP’s downtown location is an important distinguishing factor. At full development we will be the largest urban research park in the nation. We believe our downtown location provides distinct business advantages to our tenant companies such as close proximity to financial, legal, business and government districts and more importantly we offer desirable lifestyle amenities in the State’s fourth largest city.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. donated 1.3 million square feet of existing building space and 16.5 acres of land. And it has been reported the space would be evenly divided between residential, retail and laboratory/ office space. What ideas have been discussed to best utilize the building space and the land? PTRP’s master plan has provided a framework for the overall structure of the North District to find ways to successfully revitalize historic buildings and provide for new amenities within an urban setting. In early 2008, we anticipate a partnership with a developer to redevelop 1.2 million square feet of space within the 60 acres of the Northern District. As you stated, the area would be designed to provide for a mixed-use environment that would address the need for biomedical, residential and retail space. We are currently in the process of exploring the right mix in proportion to need.
The ability to link the RJ Reynolds Warehouses to the downtown is an essential part of the fulfillment of the urban research park concept. We believe a program with a mixture of uses – residential, retail, entertainment, laboratory and office – is the most sustainable approach to the PTRP and to the transformation of America’s cities in general. The North District has the capability of linking the RJR Warehouses back into the fabric of downtown. The downtown has a vibrant arts and entertainment districts for a city of its size. The North District offers an opportunity to establish a critical mass that can be leveraged for the good of the PTRP and the overall economic development of Winston-Salem.
What is your long-term vision for the Piedmont Triad Research Park? What will it look like in 20 years?
PTRP will continue to expand its intellectual connectivity by cultivating new ideas in health sciences and biotechnology. We have a renewed vision to build a cultural-urban-scientific community, Where Innovation Lives. About Piedmont Triad Research Park (www.ptrp.com) Piedmont Triad Research Park (PTRP) is a place where innovation lives. PTRP is a highly interactive, master-planned urban-based park located in downtown Winston-Salem, N.C., that provides office and laboratory facilities to biomedical and information technology tenants. Currently the PTRP community encompasses six buildings, providing over 554,000 square feet of wet lab, office, meeting and residential space, and is home to 21 life science, 10 information technology and 10 business services tenants. Collectively these 41 tenants employ over 800 university and corporate personnel. PTRP expansion, led by Wake Forest University Health Sciences, is under way to create a total 5.7 million gross square feet of mixed-use research park space, reclaiming over 200 acres of the city's downtown area over the next 20-30 years.