By SUSAN JONES

The Board of Trustees on Sept. 25 approved Pitt’s first startup incubator project, which will provide space for early-stage life sciences and technology companies, including those emerging from the University’s innovation ecosystem.

The incubator will be located in a three-story, 26,000-square-foot building the University already owns at 3343 Forbes Ave., next to the Residence Inn. Parts of the building are currently unused and the building systems need to be updated.

Dwayne Pinkney, executive senior vice chancellor for administration and finance, told the board’s Property and Facilities Committee on Sept. 23 that at other places he has worked these types of incubators have been “integral to the overall innovation and the ecosystem around commercialization and providing support for faculty and for students as well who are … looking for opportunities to commercialize their intellectual property.”

Pitt selected Wexford Science and Technology as its partner in the project from four competing companies. The proposal is to renovate the building to provide wet labs, office space, scientific equipment, and related services and programming.

Pinkney said a development agreement with Wexford provides for an approximately two-year renovation of the facility, and an operating agreement is for a one-year, pre-opening period, followed by a 10-year operating term, during which Wexford would support marketing, leasing, building operations, tenant services and incubation programming.

During the operating term, Wexford will receive a management fee and licensee revenue generated by the incubator will go to the University.

The initial cost for renovations, furnishings and equipment is estimated at $20 million, Pinkney said. The University would retain approval over the annual operating budget, business plan and tenant selection for the incubator.

Rob Rutenbar, senior vice chancellor for research, pointed out that starting a wet life sciences company can be very expensive. 

“You're three professors and a grad student, and you need $4 million worth of instruments,” he told the committee. “That's kind of a tough thing. So you basically want to go someplace where you can share it at low cost. You know what happens if it's not here? They leave. They take it someplace else, and we're kind of tired of losing things to Philadelphia, losing things to Raleigh-Durham, losing things to Cambridge. …

“The whole point of putting this thing here, and especially putting it in Oakland, is to lower the barriers to having great inventors with great ideas get their tech a little closer to commercially viable.”

Pinkney stressed that, “For our faculty, especially those faculty that we are recruiting today, I think there is an expectation that this type of facility is something that you would expect at a university like the University of Pittsburgh.”

At the full Board of Trustees meeting, Rutenbar said that although this new facility is definitely for startups coming out of Pitt and UPMC, “We actually wanted to be open to everything. Obviously we are doing this because we want to support good startups. But this is a regional play. I would like Penn State's startups to come here. I'd like Ohio State's startups to come here. We think the strength of the ... life sciences ecosystem here is big enough draw. That if we build it, we think they will come.”

Scaife Hall renovation and addition

The trustees also approved a project to improve infrastructure at Scaife Hall and build an approximately 11,500-square-foot addition on the building’s east side to accommodate upgraded building systems.

The project is estimated to cost $56 million. Pinkney noted that the cost estimate has gone up $6 million since the request for proposals was first issued because of inflation.

The project includes repairs to the Desoto Street entrance and plaza, where water infiltration has led to deterioration of the structural slab and columns supporting the plaza, which is situated above critical mechanical and electrical infrastructure that is original to the building. It also includes replacement of electrical infrastructure, roofing improvements, and related site and streetscape work.

Scaife Hall already underwent a modernization project and the addition of a 110,000-square-foot West Wing, which were completed in 2023 at a cost of $129 million.

Susan Jones is editor of the University Times until Sept. 30, when she is retiring. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.

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