New commercial developments in Innovation Square are addressing the booming technology and business sectors in the science and technology community and painting a bright picture for the future of Gainesville’s growing economy, to which many have drawn similarities to the world-renowned Silicon Valley technology hub.
The base for Silicon Valley was created when the community surrounding Stanford University began to align its goals of job creation and economic advancement with those of the university. Stanford soon began to encourage graduates and faculty members to start their own companies.
Innovation Square’s first new building, the Florida Innovation Hub, is a primary example of Gainesville’s science and technology community following the Silicon Valley model. The entrepreneurial incubator, a catalyst for technologies and startups emanating from the University of Florida, has already created more than 240 jobs and garnered more than $10 million in private investment since its inception nearly one and a half years ago.
Another ingredient to the California technology hub’s success was the influx of companies to the area, like Lockheed and General Electric, that aimed to capitalize on Stanford’s increased federal funding during the Cold War. Stanford’s increased research and technology output became a national commodity.
In 2012, UF’s research and development expenditures totaled $740 million, placing the school 12th nationally among all public universities. Since then, companies have taken note of Innovation Square’s newest projects that can offer access to the university’s world-class talent and research.
The eight-story Infusion Technology Center will be located immediately next to the Florida Innovation Hub and will provide space for high-tech companies. The building’s developer, Trimark Properties, is in lease negotiations with several companies looking to expand to the Class A building in hopes of capitalizing on the benefits surrounding the University of Florida.
It isn’t just startups and large, established companies being catered to in Innovation Square.
Just one block away from the Infusion Technology Center, Nimbus CoWork will provide the area’s first co-work space for small businesses, startups and independent workers looking for a professional place to create, meet and network in the science and technology community. The 14,000-square-foot building will provide flexible, all-inclusive membership options spanning from shared co-work space to private offices. The goal of the co-work is to supply space for those companies and individuals who want to grow in Innovation Square but aren’t ready for a long-term lease on a larger office.
Dotting the Innovation Square neighborhood, existing buildings are being repurposed and modernized to provide space for incoming and locally expanding companies.
Ayers Technology Plaza, once a thriving 110,000-square-foot medical center, is being entirely renovated and has been found to be the perfect location for companies that want to grow at their own pace into contiguous space. Companies like Mindtree, winner of the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce’s Business of the Year award for its job creation and overall contribution to the Gainesville community, are heading the building’s revitalization just across the street from the Florida Innovation Hub.
Freestanding buildings are being updated as well. Mobiquity expanded into the recently modernized 606 at Innovation Square. Managed by Trimark Properties, the building and other neighboring properties aim to reflect the active, high-tech atmosphere found in the Innovation Square community.
These restored office spaces are attracting companies like Mobiquity that would otherwise be looking to New York, California or Boston to expand operations.
Providing housing for new employees and students within Innovation Square, Savion Park luxury apartments are set for an Aug. 2014 move-in. Overlooking the pond in the science and technology community’s Tumblin Creek Park, the apartment complex showcases contemporary, New York-inspired design.
While current commercial developments in Innovation Square continue to create jobs for the local workforce, upcoming projects exemplify a promising future for a Gainesville economy already on the incline.