Local companies view Pennovation as 'visionary'

As Penn celebrated on Friday the ceremonial groundbreaking of the Pennovation Center, a business incubator opening on Penn’s South Bank campus , businesses settling into the South Bank area have begun preparing for an influx of new ideas .

Having business located in one area fosters collaboration between different fields, according to representatives of Penn and local companies.

“The South Bank and the [Pennovation] Center will certainly foster synergy among different technologies,” said Frank Leu, CEO of Novapeutics , a diabetes treatment company that has already opened an outpost on Penn’s South Bank .

Penn certainly believes the same thing — the University plans to invest $35 million into improving the South Bank and to build the the 52,000-square-foot Pennovation Center.

The center “will attract attention from investors from all over the country to really look at the Philadelphia area,” Leu added.

Many companies settling into the South Bank campus plan to benefit from the space available in the Pennovation Center, which includes various labs and common areas where representatives from various companies can collaborate.

The lab space is particularly helpful for new technology startups, since “they typically can’t afford to rent a lab space like this, so it’s going to be a great boom for them,” said Dora Mitchell , assistant director of PCI Ventures, a Penn program that offers resources and advice to Penn-related entrepreneurs.

“Being next to Penn and its resources has really helped our company,” Leu said, explaining that using Penn’s lab space and working with University personnel helps them develop their ideas.

Mike Patterson , CEO of Graphene Frontiers — a nanotechnology manufacturer located on 36th and Market streets — also believes that Penn’s South Bank campus can greatly benefit local startups.

Specifically, he said that lab space is generally expensive and hard to come by in Philadelphia, but that the new center would provide ample available lab space for companies moving to the South Bank. The prices and terms for using the lab space have not yet been decided by the University.

“I think [the center] is something desperately needed in the area especially for smaller startup companies” said Patterson.

Correction: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this article incorrectly described the Pennovation Center as a 200,000 square foot center. The center will be 52,000 square feet.

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