Arsenal office park bill advances
Senate panel OKs TIF district for$1 billion complex
MONTGOMERY – A bill that would allow Huntsville to form a special tax increment finance district for a 470-acre, $1 billion office park at Redstone Arsenal got a big boost Thursday.
It won unanimous and bipartisan approval by the Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee.
Sen. Tom Butler, D-Madison, the Senate sponsor, said he hoped the bill would be considered by the full Senate next week.
“We’re trying to put it on a fast track because it’s a huge piece of the (BRAC) puzzle,” he said. “I think we’ve educated as many people, particularly on that committee, as possible how important that bill is.”
Butler amended the bill so that the TIF would not extend beyond 35 years. A TIF district allows the city to borrow money for public improvements and repay the debt with property tax revenue gains resulting from the improvements.
In this case, the developer, LW Redstone, has agreed to buy the bonds directly and be repaid as the tax growth happens.
Although BRAC, which will bring an estimated 10,000 government and contractor jobs to Huntsville and North Alabama, will have an economic impact statewide, Butler said Huntsville will bear the brunt of related problems such as the need for improved roads and more classrooms.
The new development would eventually include 4 million square feet of office space and employ about 14,000 people. Butler said it would generate $80 million alone in sales taxes off construction materials.
“We’re behind the curve, and we can’t go fast enough,” he said.
The Madison County House and Senate delegation are fully supportive of the bill.
“All five Madison County senators now are supporting it, including, (Sen. Paul) Sanford (R-Huntsville),” said Butler.
Sanford had declined to sign the bill earlier because he hadn’t read it, but Butler said Sanford told him Wednesday he backs it.
Hudson-led institute promises 900 jobs for city
Big plans for biotech
Hudson-led institute promises 900 jobs for city
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
By BRIAN LAWSON
Times Business Writer brianl@htimes.com
Huntsville will be the home of a major new biotechnology research institute, led by industry pioneer Jim Hudson and backed by $80 million in private contributions and a $50 million state investment.
At a luncheon today, Gov. Bob Riley, who has called for biotech development in Alabama since he first ran for governor, will announce the establishment of the nonprofit Hudson-Alpha Institute for Biotechnology.
“With a $50 million commitment from the state, we’re gaining $80 million in private investments that together will help create about 900 direct new jobs,” Riley said. “We are actively and aggressively positioning Alabama to become a worldwide leader in biotech research and one of the premier places in the nation for these high-paying jobs that can’t be exported overseas.”
Researchers in the biotech field often possess both a medical degree and a Ph.D. and want to work around the world with top researchers, the kind the institute hopes to attract.
Hudson, 63, established Huntsville’s biotech industry with his company, Research Genetics, which he founded in 1987 and sold in 2000. He said the institute project - a resurrection of a long-held idea - began to move forward in May 2004 after significant amounts of cash were raised from private donors. The group approached Riley, seeking state support. Hudson said Riley was immediately receptive and made the deal possible.
“This is the most exciting thing I’ve been involved with in my lifetime,” Hudson said. “This is going to be unique. It will be an economic development engine as much as a true research facility. We’ll have eight scientific teams, housed in the same building with eight biotech companies.”
Hudson said the private donors who generated the $80 million commitment have asked not to be identified. The donors are not investors seeking a return, he said.
While the institute and its future researchers will face plenty of competition for grant dollars, Hudson said the biotech field is exploding with the mapping of the human genome, and there are plenty of “niches available to become a dominant player.”
The institute’s researchers will pick projects of interest and, if successful applications or techniques are found, the institute will license the results in affiliation with the nearby companies, Hudson said.
He said the state’s $50 million investment, which is expected to be generated through the Capital Improvement Trust Fund, will be used for construction, while some $50 million of the $80 million in private money will be used to establish the facility and attract top scientists. Hudson said about $30 million will be set aside as an initial endowment.
Research Park campus
The institute will create a campus-like environment on 120 acres in Cummings Research Park. It will include a 260,000-square-foot main building that will house biotech companies and facilities for eight teams of institute-hired scientists, Hudson said.
Construction is scheduled to begin this winter, and organizers hope to open the institute in fall 2007. The institute will start with 500 to 600 people working in its facility and expects an annual payroll of $37 million by the end of 2008.
At full capacity, the institute is expected to employ 900. The property sold to it by the City of Huntsville is large enough to accommodate new buildings for companies that outgrow their space in the institute. Hudson estimates the overall campus could employ 1,600 within 10 years with an annual payroll of $83 million.
U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Huntsville, who helped negotiate the agreement between the institute and state officials, said the project could be the beginning of redefining Alabama’s economy.
“I think it’s an extraordinary opportunity for our state to define a future for itself that hasn’t been defined so far,” Cramer said. “This brings together assets from around the state of Alabama. And it allows us to enter an elite number of centers around the county like this. That will allow us to attract companies and scientists and projects beyond anything we’ve seen in North Alabama.”
Building a future
The University of Alabama in Huntsville biotechnology program Web site defines biotechnology as “the safe study and manipulation of biological molecules for development of products or techniques for medical and industrial application.”
Supporters of the project said Huntsville could see the same kind of biotech industry form around the institute as has been the case in San Diego in connection with the Scripps Institute there and in Palo Alto, Calif., near Stanford University.
Hudson said he is driven by a passion and love for biotech and its potential uses. With that in mind, his vision for the institute includes assisting new ideas to find a marketplace, providing opportunities for freshly minted biotech students and top talent, and developing a science curriculum to use in distance learning across the state.
Hudson said major researchers want to be able to publish their findings in connection with a university, and the institute will establish the necessary relationships with UAH and UAB.
Top scientists
Hudson said the institute’s scientific advisory board includes some of the world’s top biotech scientists, including Dr. Richard Myers, director of Stanford’s Human Genome Center, and Dr. Thomas Hudson, director of the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre.
UAB has an established biotech center on its campus, which bears the name of U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa. Birmingham officials had expressed opposition to the project, but Riley’s support, sealed in a letter of intent last December, focused on the advantages the institute is expected to bring the entire state in competition with the rest of the world, not for Huntsville at Birmingham’s expense.
Hudson said in an interview last week that officials in Georgia were also interested in the project for Georgia Tech and made a strong bid.
Cramer said an important part of negotiations was helping state officials and the Birmingham medical community know that it was “their project, as well as ours here in North Alabama.”
The institute has recruited eight biotech companies, many with previous affiliations with Hudson and based in Huntsville, to move into the facility.
The companies are Applied Genomics, Expression Genetics, Genaco Biomedical Products, New Century Pharmaceuticals, Open Biosystems, Operon Biotechnologies, SourceCF and Nektar Therapeutics.
http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/2009/07/2009-best-city-huntsville.html
No. 1: Huntsville, Alabama
By Jane Bennett Clark, Senior Associate Editor
From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, July 2009
FLYING HIGH
Population: 378,057
Income Growth: 9.7%
Cost of Living Index: 91
Median Household Income: $51,275
Percentage of Workforce in Creative Class: 40%
Talk about a bulletproof economy. This northern Alabama city represents critical mass for the nation’s missile-defense and aerospace industries. The medical and life-sciences industries are thriving, too. Thousands of new jobs are pouring into town. With a few exceptions, business in Huntsville is so healthy that Mayor Tommy Battle has a pleasant problem: “We have more jobs than we can fill.”
Huntsville owes much of its red-blooded vitality to the U.S. Army, which employs more than 14,000 people, mostly civilians, at the 38,000-acre Redstone Arsenal. “If a soldier drives it, eats it or shoots it, we’re involved — beans to bullets,” says Dan O’Boyle, arsenal spokesman.
As part of an ongoing consolidation of army bases and personnel — known as BRAC, the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process — the arsenal will hire 5,000 more people over the next few years, and another 5,000 jobs will be added indirectly to the area.
As for aerospace, Huntsville isn’t called Rocket City for nothing. The giant rocket replica that pierces the Huntsville skyline not only makes a handy reference point for out-of-towners but also represents Huntsville’s storied — and still strong — role in space exploration. The site of the historic test launch of the Saturn V rocket, which put the U.S. space mission one step closer to the moon, Huntsville houses an original Saturn V at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center and hosts thousands of students each year at the center’s Space Camp. The Marshall Space Flight Center, part of NASA, employs 2,500 scientists, many of whom are working on the next moon launch.
All those scientists and engineers create a bubbling brew of brainpower that attracts other intellectuals. Says Rick Davis, director of Cummings Research Park, “Smart people come here.” Huntsville encourages the influx by offering companies below-market real estate prices and room to grow at Cummings, which encompasses 3,800 acres. The HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, a recent arrival, represents Huntsville’s foray into the next frontier. HudsonAlpha translates the results of the Human Genome Project into the development of new, targeted medicines. Says director Richard Myers, “In five years, we will all be taking our genomic sequence with us to the doctor’s office.”
Not every sector in Huntsville is booming. Car sales have plummeted in recent months, and home sales have slowed, especially for houses priced at $300,000 and up. Still, Huntsville’s otherwise strong economy, combined with a scenic, mountain-view setting, a historical downtown, top-quality museums and a 110-acre botanical garden, encourages residents to stay put and newcomers to stream in. Says Battle: “This place never misses a beat.”
HUNTSVILLE RANKED #1 CITY IN 2009 BY KIPLINGER’S
At a time when the Huntsville/Madison County community has received nearly unprecedented rankings and recognition for its job growth, technology creation, and quality of life, along comes its most lofty ranking yet - Kiplinger’s Personal Finance #1 city in the U.S. in 2009.
Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County Board Chair Irma Tuder said the ranking is more good news in the community’s on-going workforce recruitment and targeted industry recruitment efforts.
“This ranking illustrates what we have been saying about our community for a long time, that Huntsville is truly a smart place to live, work and play,” Tuder said. “This is a tremendous honor for everyone here - and Kiplinger’s reporter Jane Clark indicated that she not only found Huntsville to be an excellent place for high-tech job growth, but also for its intellectual and entrepreneurial energy.”
The reporter visited Huntsville for several days in April and met with a number of local officials, including Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, and visited several attractions and businesses, including the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, Huntsville Botanical Garden as well as taking tours of Cummings Research Park, Redstone Arsenal and the historic Twickenham district in Huntsville.
“In just a few days, the reporter was able to quickly see and feel what makes our community so unique,” said Tuder. “As we recruit people to our community to fill our many high-tech jobs, a ranking like this is a wonderful image enhancement tool for us. We will use this information in all of our recruiting efforts and we hope and believe it will be a catalyst for people to take a more in-depth look at our community as a possible place to start or advance their careers.”
Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle praised the magazine as well.
“I’d like to thank Kiplinger’s Personal Finance for recognizing Huntsville’s diverse work force and dynamic economy in this year’s rankings. This number one ranking highlights the strength of our entire community and gives another example of why Huntsville remains the bright and shining star of Alabama. We’re very proud of our community and thankful to Kiplinger’s for highlighting our story.”
According to a release issued by the magazine Tuesday, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance named its “10 Best Cities of 2009″ by selecting locales offering solid employment opportunities and the talent to create new, well-paying positions. A healthy job market means these cities will suffer less during the recession and will have a head start toward growth when the recovery takes off. This year’s favorites are profiled in the July issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, on newsstands June 9, and online at www.kiplinger.com/money/bestcities, with additional interactive features.
The release also stated that when identifying the Best Cities of 2009, Kiplinger’s teamed with Kevin Stolarick, research director at the Martin Prosperity Institute, a think tank that studies economic prosperity. Stolarick evaluated U.S. cities for their growth potential, looking not just at the overall number of jobs but also at the quality of those positions and the ability of cities to hold on to them when the economy softens.
“Although downturns are felt by everyone, our research has shown that the impact is less severe for those in the creative class-people who are paid to think,” says Stolarick. “People in fields such as science, engineering, architecture, and education are catalysts of vitality and livability in a city,” the release stated.
“We know that most of our readers work in such professions,” said Kiplinger’s senior editor Robert Frick. “Our list is tailor-made to be of interest to our readers.”
Kiplinger’s Best Cities of 2009:
