The Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation has chosen a waterfront site within the Quonset Point/Davisville Port and Commerce Park for development as a marine bioscience research and business park, and has hired Lincoln-based Pare Engineering Corp. to plan the details.
The proposed park is geared to established businesses, researchers and entrepreneurs whose work has commercial applications but needs specific infrastructure, the EDC said. The state would benefit by creating jobs and expanding “an innovative, cutting-edge” industry.
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“We are setting the foundation for us to attract new business from throughout the world to locate here and for existing companies in this important field to grow,” Gov. Donald L. Carcieri said in a news release. “This marks a significant investment in our scientific infrastructure, which will have a lasting legacy on our state for years to come.”
The EDC says Rhode Island is “ideally situated” to further develop the marine bioscience industry because of the state’s abundance of clean seawater, powerful academic institutions and concentration of research scientists working in marine biotechnology or aquaculture.
But key factors are limiting the industry’s growth, the EDC says, including regulatory and permitting issues, financing, water quality consistency and high cost-to-benefit risks. A centralized park would be “well-positioned to overcome such obstacles,” economic development officials say, and it could be an “international model” for marine biosciences.
“Creating new opportunities for the scientific community to flourish in Rhode Island is key to our future economic development growth in this area,” EDC Executive Director Michael McMahon said. “This initiative represents Rhode Island’s ability to leverage our key strengths into real assets that create new research and employment opportunities.”
The chosen site is in an “attractive area” reserved for waterfront-related business, the EDC said.
In Phase I, laboratory suites would be provided for researchers to pursue their ideas. In the future, commercial production facilities could be built to bring products to market.
A design team led by Pare Engineering, with TAG Engineering and Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture and Engineering, has prepared a conceptual building and infrastructure design for the first phase of the project, which is expected to cost $19.5 million.
Along with the research facilities, the cost includes a seawater intake system and an effluent discharge and treatment system to ensure that the project and the businesses located there do not adversely affect water quality in Narragansett Bay, the EDC said.
For the second phase, officials have identified additional parcels of land nearby that would allow companies to grow and to draw other related businesses.
Jeffrey Seemann, dean of the College of the Environment and Life Sciences at the University of Rhode Island, said he is strongly supporting the project.
“The Marine Bioscience Research and Business Park will potentially allow URI to further our research and development efforts in this area, while providing a world-class, state-of-the-art facility in which our scientists can work in tandem with other leading scientists,” Seemann said.
A complete report on the proposal is available at www.riedc.com/files/Bioscience_Report.pdf.
