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April 2, 2015

Leases, $37 million in renovations OKd

Pitt’s Energy Storage Technology Laboratory, Electric Power Technology Laboratory, High Temperature Corrosion Laboratory and the Pitt Incubator Laboratories will be housed at the Energy Innovation Center (EIC) in Pittsburgh’s Hill District under a lease approved March 26 by the Board of Trustees property and facilities committee.

At that meeting, the committee also approved $37 million in renovations; approved a lease that will move the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence (IEE) to the Parkvale Annex building, and renewed the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) lease at the Hillman Cancer Center.

EIC lease

The University’s 15-year lease for 18,600 square feet of lab and office space at the EIC begins Dec. 31 at an initial cost of $311,550 and runs through January 2031, with a five-year option to renew.

Pittsburgh Gateways Corp. is developing the EIC in the former Connelly Trade School at 1501 Bedford Ave. It purchased the 233,822-square-foot building from the Pittsburgh Public Schools in 2011.

The 6.6-acre urban complex will promote energy-sector research and innovation and contribute to job creation, entrepreneurship and urban economic revitalization, according to the EIC. Stakeholders include Penn State and Duquesne University as well as corporate, government and foundation partners.

According to trustees’ background documents, the EIC space is being improved to meet the University’s needs at a project cost not to exceed $8.89 million. The landlord will provide $3.62 million toward construction, while the University will be responsible for $3.77 million for construction and $1.49 million for furniture, fixtures, equipment and other costs. Rent and construction costs will be funded through the Office of the Provost and the Swanson School of Engineering.

Research funding for the programs that will be housed at the EIC is expected to “grow significantly with the occupancy in this facility,” according to the committee documents. The off-campus location will foster industrial collaboration that cannot be done on campus.

Prashant Kumta of bioengineering heads the Energy Storage Technology Laboratory, which focuses on research in the energy-storage area.

Gregory Reed of electrical and computer engineering heads the Electric Power Technology Laboratory, which focuses on advanced electric power grid and energy generation, transmission and distribution-system technologies; power electronics and control technologies; renewable energy systems and integration; smart grid technologies and applications, and energy-storage development.

Brian Gleeson of mechanical engineering and materials science leads the High Temperature Corrosion Laboratory, which focuses on the thermodynamics and kinetics of gas/solid and solid/solid reactions with emphasis on high-temperature degradation of metallic alloys and coatings in power generation and aeronautics.

Gleeson joined the Pitt faculty in 2007 but, according to trustees documents, his lab had remained at Iowa State University due to restrictions on industrial-based research on the Pittsburgh campus.

The Pitt Incubator Laboratories, headed by Vice Provost for Research Mark Redfern and the University’s Innovation Institute, will consist of six labs that will be set aside for research-innovation incubator space. The incubator will foster collaborations with industry such as proof-of-concept research and could serve projects from within Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences departments and programs as well as from engineering.

IEE lease

The trustees approved a lease with Cityview Properties that will move the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence into 4,880 square feet of space on the first floor of the Parkvale Annex building at 3520 Forbes Ave.

The IEE, part of the University’s Innovation Institute, provides educational programming, consulting and other support for entrepreneurs and business leaders.

The five-year lease begins July 15 at an annual cost of $141,520 plus reimbursement for the University’s share of the building’s real estate taxes. IEE funding sources will cover the lease costs.

The agreement includes a five-year option to renew.

Parran/Crabtree renovations

The property and facilities committee approved $34.38 million for the second phase of renovations to Parran and Crabtree halls, which house the Graduate School of Public Health.

This phase will renovate all nine floors of Parran Hall, totaling 127,000 square feet of space. Wet labs will be moved to the recently completed five-story addition to the public health building, with the vacated lab space to be converted into offices, classrooms and lecture halls.

The bulk of the project, $31.15 million, will be paid for with state funds, with Graduate School of Public Health reserves covering $3.24 million of the cost.

The trustees property and facilities committee approved $34.38 million for the second phase of renovations to Parran and Crabtree Halls, which house the Graduate School of Public Health.

The trustees property and facilities committee approved $34.38 million for the second phase of renovations to Parran and Crabtree Halls, which house the Graduate School of Public Health.

Eberly Hall lab renovations

The committee approved a $3.1 million Dietrich school project to expand lab space for chemistry faculty member Alexander Star’s nanomaterials, biosensors and drug delivery research.

The renovation of 6,657 square feet of space on the first floor of Eberly Hall will create a sensor-testing laboratory and double the lab space for this chemistry research group.

UPCI lease renewal

The trustees committee renewed UPCI’s lease of 183,265 square feet of space in the UPMC Health System Hillman Cancer Institute in  Shadyside.

UPCI has been located in the Hillman Cancer Center since 2002.

The new five-year lease with UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside commences July 1 at an initial annual cost of $9.07 million.

—Kimberly K. Barlow