Alexion's departure shows Science Park's success

"Frankly, I'm puzzled," Richard J. Grossi, CEO of Science Park, New Haven's technology business incubator, told the Herald on Thurs., Sept. 28. "This is not news. This was known six or eight months ago."

TANYA PALOMO/YH Alexion left Science Park last week, clearing the way for new companies to move into the biotech incubator.

Grossi was referring to an article in the Fri., Sept. 22 edition of the Yale Daily News, which described high-flying biotech start-up Alexion Pharmaceuticals as "bolting" New Haven and Science Park. Grossi, though, doesn't blame the paper for blowing Alexion's departure out of proportion. Rather, he said it underscored a broader misunderstanding of the mission of Science Park itself.

"Science Park was founded for the purpose of encouraging startup businesses, with the full understanding that, with good management and a little luck, they would move on," he said. But the fact that Science Park is often misunderstood is not surprising—the area has a long, complicated history.

The area now known as Science Park was originally developed in 1866 as a manufacturing site for the renowned gun manufacturer, the Winchester Arms Company. After World War II, the company stumbled through periods of intense financial hardship and changed hands several times before finally moving to Illinois in the early 1980s. Aside from the jobs lost following Winchester's departure, New Haven was also left with a gaping hole—nearly 80 acres of unused industrial space.

With an eye on revitalizing the land, Yale, along with the City of New Haven and one of Winchester's former owners, the Olin Corporation, incorporated the non-profit Science Park Development Corporation (SPDC) into the industrial space on Aug. 31, 1981. SPDC's idea at the time was to foster technology start-ups in the newly vacant buildings. The ideas behind these start-ups, meanwhile, were to come from Yale.

As University President Richard Levin, GRD '74, explained in a prepared statement several years ago, "Each year, almost $300 million flows into the region from the federal government, as well as from foundations and corporations around the nation, to be spent on research at Yale. It is this ongoing base of fundamental and applied research that produces the ideas and inventions that form the basis for the new businesses that will fill Science Park and other new sites in New Haven."

Since its founding, though, Science Park has continually struggled with its vision. The Park initially billed itself as a place for hot, young companies and, for a time, succeeded in attracting many start-ups. Its biggest tenants, however, were still old-line behemoths like SNET, not the cutting-edge technology companies executives had hoped for. Science Park also struggled with its location, and with the common stereotype that New Haven was a decaying city wrought with socioeconomic problems.

In 1995, Alexion Chief Operating Officer David Keiser claimed that "New Haven is not particularly appealing. It has [been] a disadvantage in attracting and retaining employees here." Indeed, at the start of the 1990s, Science Park's facilities had begun to deteriorate and SPDC was operating at a deficit. Critics feared that Science Park was foundering and on the verge of extinction. Then, in 1998, the state stepped in: Governor John Rowland announced a broad $100 million revitalization plan, to be carried out through 2001.

Now, two years into Rowland's three-year plan, Science Park is on the track for success. Connecticut's biotechnology industry is exploding so quickly that even Science Park is having trouble keeping pace. Current Science Park tenants employ approximately 1,300 people and project a 32 percent job growth rate over the next five years. The SPDC predicts that half of those jobs will involve skilled technical work.

And Science Park is now exploring more options for improvement in addition to its ongoing revitalization project. The Park is currently in negotiations with Cambridge, Mass.-based developer Lyme Properties for what Grossi vaguely described as a "significant expansion project."

Though he declined to give too many details about the deal, Grossi said that he is"on the verge of finalizing a major agreement. If this works, it will be very significant for us." Under the proposed agreement, Lyme Properties would manage and expand the Park's space, an endeavor SPDC has not had the resources to undertake.

Despite all the talk of revitalization and expansion, however, Science Park's core mission will remain the same: fostering and supporting high-tech start-sups. Inevitably, that means larger companies like Alexion will move to new locations. "I view Alexion as one of our great success stories," Grossi said. "If they relocate within the state of Connecticut then that's good for business and good for everyone."

"I've always compared us to a grammar school," Grossi explained. "You go to grammar school, then high school, and then hopefully college. Although we're always sad to see companies go, we expect them to move on when they're ready."

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