New Building Block Emerges in Texas Biotech Race

Today, DPR's Dallas team sits down with Carter & Burgess Inc. of Fort Worth for their first meeting to mortar an alliance for municipal projects, usually Economic Development Corp. endeavors. The DPR San Diego-Bay Area biotech team's knowledge in the arena will serve as a starting point to custom tailor a package for Texas. The alliance is considered key because each player brings a broad spectrum of biotech expertise to a rapidly changing and emerging industry.

DPR's Gary Nauert, the Dallas-Austin regional leader, and Ken Clausen, senior project manager, envision plans for an industrial park once the program's in place. Such an undertaking would encompass users of all sizes, from the small labs to the 100,000 sf-plus manufacturing sites. The strategy is to bring biotech companies together on the same campus with their support industries.

Clausen likens the emerging industry to that of telecom just a few years back and Austin's corner on the microelectronics field as a result of its push in the 1960s. "Look what that did for Austin," he says. "This industry requires the same kind of infrastructure." Interest is high in the DFW metroplex, Austin and Houston. To date, DPR teams in Texas alone have worked on more than 50 biotech projects.

The biotech brass ring comes with specific construction and design needs. Space requirements vary as do the physical environment. Foremost are environmental concerns that spike building costs in order to comply with tough standards. Temperature controls, refrigeration rooms, laboratory fume hoods and chemical-resistant flooring must be part of the design.

DPR is nearing completion on a 20-year-old office building conversion into a biotech research facility in Dallas. The project started in late summer 2001 and is emerging in 2002 as a 23,000-sf research and development facility for Cumbre Inc., a pioneer of Dallas' emerging biotech corridor. A recipient of $26 million in second-round funding, Cumbre is poised to cut the ribbon on its new home: 11,000 sf of lab space, 6,000 sf of office space and 6,000 sf of expansion space.

Nauert says the DFW metroplex is a prime candidate for biotech relocations and expansions. The support industries are here, research facilities abound and a skilled workforce is readily available in the university network in North Texas. And, the health-care industry is already a heavyweight in the economy. "It's natural that these industries would want to come to Texas," Clausen adds.

Some will be new construction and others, retrofits and adaptive reuses. The DPR team leaders can't say how much space will be needed, but do know that it's significant if Texas wins the race to be the lead biotech market in the Southwest.