BY BRITTANY ANDERSON & GRACE DICKENS
The bigger picture
While Austin has potential for a successful indus- try, available lab space remains an issue, said Nancy Lyon, the director of Austin Community College’s Bioscience Incubator. The facility offers the only rentable lab space in Austin, Lyon said. The incuba- tor provides communal equipment and spaces, but only to startups that need the specific equipment. “It’s such a finite market. We really only cover this little niche,” Lyon said. That is not to say infrastructure is not on the way, however, Schwab said. Karlin Real Estate officials announced in September the allocation of 10,000 square feet of lab space to UT for startups, representing one-tenth of its 100,000-square-foot lab and office space building at Parmer Austin. Schwab said the company also has a lab space with hundreds of thousands of square feet opening in early 2024 in the former 3M building in Austin, now called Highpoint at 2222.
Upcoming Karlin lab facilities include: • Newly delivered 100,000-square-foot lab building, with 10,000 square feet for UT’s life sciences startup launcher • 190,000-square-foot lab and office building ready to develop • A lab project with hundreds of thousands of square feet, called Highpoint at 2222
Parmer Austin lab space
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SOURCE: KARLIN REAL ESTATE/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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Needs for industry growth For the industry to continue to grow, the report from Austin Next and Austin Medtech Connect said the following must be prioritized:
Looking ahead
“There’s very high growth, but it’s in its [beginning] stages of growing, which is why we’re so excited about it,” Schwab said. “We see no reason why there won’t be more and bigger companies coming our way if the infrastructure and real estate projects are there for these tenants to come.”
Compared to major research hubs across the country, from the top-performing Research Triangle Park in North Carolina to Texas’ own largest industry in Houston, Austin has a small life science industry, by all measures. Regardless, the exponential growth of Austin’s industry in three years proves that despite its size, life science opportunities are high in demand, Schwab said.
More available lab space
Further investment into life sciences industry
Continued supply of skilled workforce
SOURCES: AUSTIN MEDTECH CONNECT, AUSTIN NEXT/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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