Dr. Bruce A. Holm Upstate MedTech Centre

Genesee County Economic Development Center / Genesee Gateway Local Development Corp.

Genesee County, nestled between Buffalo and Rochester, had failed to capitalize on opportunities in the emerging Life Sciences field despite the fact it is located in a region that ranks 8th nationally in Medical Equipment and Supply manufacturing and 11th nationally in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing. In addition, the county’s hospital, United Memorial Medical Center (UMMC) and Genesee Community College (GCC) were both pressed for state of the art facilities to support UMMC’s Physical Therapy Program and GCC’s Nursing Program.

Project Need(s)
Find a location that would provide class A space to UMMC and GCC while allowing the GCEDC to offer low cost commercialization space to companies commercializing innovation from regional University Centers. These companies are routinely cash starved and need to be provided a “soft landing” close to their University Center ties. Since this is the time that many start-ups in this industry are swept away by venture capital firms, the commercialization centre would root those companies in Genesee County, providing quality, high paying jobs for the future.

Project Solution
The GCEDC, through its real estate affiliate the Genesee Gateway Local Development Corporation (GGLDC), was able to develop a collaborative approach to build the Dr. Bruce A. Holm Upstate MedTech Centre, a $7.2M, 43,000 square foot facility near GCC to house the GCEDC’s offices, 6,100 sq ft of commercialization space, UMMC’s Physical Therapy program and GCC’s Nursing Program. The building will be home to an estimated 70 employees and will also house a satellite office for the University at Buffalo’s Center for Advanced Technology in Biomedical Engineering. The commercialization center will act as an “Accelerator” for high tech companies while establishing a “Migration Path” that will help those companies move from infancy to a new location in one of the GCEDC/GGLDC’s strategic corporate parks. The GCEDC was able to work with a local community bank and the USDA’s Rural Development to secure a low interest loan package. In order to further reduce costs, the GCEDC hired Clark Patterson Lee to perform a design-build approach. The project will allow UMMC to upgrade its service and house its Physical Therapy program under one roof, providing a more accessible facility. Since 2000, the hospital has operated two PT programs at two locations. Neither of the sites was appropriately sized to provide the increasing level of service demanded by patient volumes and care plans. Patient access at one site was limited and not fully handicapped accessible. The project will also allow GCC to double its current graduation rate of nurses each year from roughly 75 to 150, while helping the school attract Master’s level nurses for instruction. Ground was broken in June with completion expected in 2010.