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$207 MILLION INFUSION FOR HIGH-TECH CENTER
Published on December 7, 2001
Author: STEPHEN WATSON - News Staff Reporter
© The Buffalo News Inc.
A collection of local and national companies, along with the state, plans to invest $207.3 million in a major high-tech research center in Buffalo, Gov. George E. Pataki announced Thursday.
Veridian, a national research company with operations in Cheektowaga, is leading the private investment with $62 million in venture capital and software. Pataki also promised he will put $50 million in capital money in next year's state budget for the center. Another major supporter is Compaq Computer Corp. of Texas, which is contributing $42.6 million. With this investment, the governor said, Buffalo will become a worldwide leader in bioinformatics, an emerging field that melds the biological sciences and supercomputers. The research center "will transform Western New York's economy and make sure that Western New York has the 21st century economy it needs," Pataki said at a news conference in the University at Buffalo's Jacobs Executive Center, the former Butler mansion, in Buffalo. At the center, local companies will spin high-tech research at UB and in the city's medical corridor into thousands of new jobs and millions of dollars in economic impact, the governor said. The proposed Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics will be housed in a 150,000-square-foot facility to be built somewhere near the medical corridor on High Street, Pataki said. The building is expected to cost $40 million. No site has been selected. Local officials were thrilled at Thursday's announcement, saying this is some of the best news Western New York's ailing economy has received in a long time. "This is going to be a real shot in the arm as we attempt to rebrand Erie County and Western New York as an attractive place to work and live," County Executive Joel A. Giambra said after the announcement. Mayor Anthony M. Masiello added that the new facility itself -- which will be 11/2 times the size of a typical Wal-Mart or Home Depot store -- will help spur redevelopment efforts in neighborhoods near the medical corridor. "It's going to have a significant impact on Allentown and the Fruit Belt, and we're positioning ourselves to take full advantage of that," Masiello said. University officials also were elated. "My hope is we'll look back on this in 20 years and say this was a watershed event," said UB President William R. Greiner. The companies supporting the center have agreed to invest more than $150 million in venture capital, software and equipment, Pataki said. The largest supporter, Veridian, which offered $62.5 million, conducts a lot of work in information technology and biological sciences, said Brian J. Morra, president of its information systems sector. "Veridian has a fairly significant business in Western New York, in Buffalo," Morra said. "It's a presence we are always looking to expand." Compaq, which is contributing $42.6 million, hopes the combination of academic, medical and business efforts in bioinformatics will make Buffalo a "sticky region" in the field, drawing in further investment and attracting other companies, said Bill Blake, vice president of the firm's worldwide high-performance technical computing group. Other contributors are: InforMax, a Maryland bioinformatics software company, $28 million; Stryker Corp., a worldwide manufacturer of specialty medical products, $7.2 million; and Dell Corp., a Texas-based computer maker, and Sun Microsystems, a California-based software maker, $1 million each. Also, a group of Western New York businesses, including Grand Island's Invitrogen Corp., is investing $15 million. The bioinformatics center will be a partnership among UB, Buffalo's Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and local and national companies. Researchers at those facilities will use supercomputers to analyze reams of biological and medical data, such as information gleaned from the project to map the human genome. UB and the institutes will work with companies to translate research conducted at the center into products that can be commercialized, said UB Provost Elizabeth D. Capaldi. The center could produce new computer software, diagnostic tools and -- in the long term -- new drugs, she said. "This truly is the basis for a new economy in Buffalo," Capaldi said. What will happen next, she said, is that the university and its partners will finish final design work for the center and decide on a location for the building. The university soon will be able to announce what specific role each business partner will play in the center, Capaldi said. The Buffalo center is one of four statewide that Pataki proposed in his State of the State address in January. He said at the time that the centers in Buffalo, Rochester, Albany and Stony Brook would receive $283 million in state money and $700 million in private investment. This year's state budget includes only $10 million for the centers and all state-backed high-tech ventures. Since January, nothing had been said publicly about which companies were backing the Buffalo center and how much officials had raised in private financing. "A lot of people said, when? The answer was, when the time is right, when all the pieces are in place," Pataki said Thursday. e-mail: swatson@buffnews.comInvalid RETURN.TO.MARK STYLs voided here
Dennis C. Enser/Buffalo News
Gov. George E. Pataki, left , and UB president William R. Greiner,
right, found plenty to smile about in Thursday's announcement .
UB provost Elizabeth D. Capaldi
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