Across the state and nation, other communities have joined the lucrative race to attract researchers looking for new ways to help patients and to use that knowledge to turn a profit.
With its blend of medical and research facilities, Temple bolted from the starting blocks faster than most, thanks in part to the Texas Legislature’s 2003 boost approving the entire city as the state’s first health and bioscience economic development district.
On Nov. 4, 2003, Temple voters supported its creation, 915-612.
The Temple Health and Bioscience Economic Development District will seek voter approval May 9 on a tax to convert part of the Bioscience Research Center in west Temple into a bioscience accelerator and hire an executive director. Like an incubator, the accelerator would house up to 10 start-up companies.
The director would help recruit scientists interested in commercializing their research and connect them with medical and academic partners like Scott & White Memorial Hospital, Texas A&M University Health Science Center and the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System. Commercialization refers to using research to create a drug, treatment or product that can be sold by a company for use with patients or in a medical setting.
An open house will be 1-5 p.m. today at the Bioscience Research Center on the former Texas Instruments campus at 5701 Airport Road in Temple. Early voting starts Monday.
If approved, the result for Temple should be economic growth as more new companies and high-paying biotech jobs are brought to the city, said Wendell Williams, bioscience district board president. If the tax is not approved, progress could come more slowly, possibly meaning Temple would miss out on opportunities, he said.
“The cities that are going to do well in the 21st century are those that have knowledge-based industries,” said Williams, a Temple banker. “If we can use this to drive 21st century jobs to Temple, Texas, knowledge-based jobs that have good pay, good benefits and can’t be shipped off overseas necessarily, that work will happen right here. It is a fabulous opportunity for a town of 60,000.”
The ballot will reflect the Legislature’s authorization of a tax of up to 15 cents per $100 property valuation, although the board voted Feb. 25 to seek no more than 2.5 cents per $100 property valuation. That would amount to $25 annually on a house valued at $100,000. The initial rate would be frozen for those who are over 65 or disabled.
The tax could generate between $700,000 and $800,000 annually for the district, Williams said. Though taxes wouldn’t be collected until 2011, if approved, the district could issue bonds or borrow money to get plans and construction started before then, using its ad valorem taxing authority as the source of repayment.
The build-out cost for the 15,000-square-foot accelerator is expected to be at least $3 million.
“Sustainability is very important,” Williams said. “The entrepreneurs will be charged rent. Our academic collaborators and partners providing services will charge fees.”
Though fledgling companies will be tenants and not paying property taxes, the goal is to help them get established in a commercial venture, secure funding and develop a product so they can move to their own facilities and pay property taxes, Williams said.
“We can assure the taxpayer that this is not a free ride,” he added. “This is not asking them to carry the burden. This is asking them to give the bioscience district a hand up to build this facility and make it as self-sustaining as we can.”
Support has already come from the federal government. In the last two years, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded the district grants of $381,000 and $331,000.
Likewise, the city of Temple in July is expected to open a health and bioscience park on 300 acres adjacent to the existing Bioscience Research Center campus, said Lee Peterson, Temple Economic Development Corp. president.
The acres come from the city’s $4.3 million purchase of the 500,000-square-foot TI plant and 500 acres in 2002. In 2005, 200 acres and the building were deeded to Scott & White for $2.5 million. According to a development agreement with Scott & White, the district will acquire the Bioscience Research Center building at some point and then lease portions back to Scott & White, Williams said.
The city’s plot includes 65 acres for up to 15 biotech businesses, a future hike-and-bike trail and other amenities designed to attract businesses and employees.
(A similar long-term initiative, Temple Medical Education District, is planned to improve the areas surrounding Scott & White, Temple College and the Olin E. Teague Veterans’ Center. The goal is to renovate infrastructure, as well as add a hiking trail, attractive employee housing, restaurants and retail.)
Former Temple Mayor Keifer Marshall praised the initiatives during an April 14 meeting with senior citizens at the Sammons Community Center in Temple.
“I’ve been here 83 years, and I’ve never seen an opportunity like this for Temple,” Marshall said. “This bioscience district is for the future; for the jobs of the future. These are going to be jobs people can earn a living with.
“(Taxpayers will) have to pay for it, but they benefit from it, too. (They will have) the opportunity to live in a community that’s growing and doing things for the future.”
Peterson said he believes the proposed tax is a good investment.
“The health and bioscience cluster is a huge component of the future of Temple,” Peterson said. “It can spring us down the road the way manufacturing and distribution have for the last 30 years. The health and bioscience cluster doesn’t develop overnight. It takes time and effort and investment.
“It will make a difference, I believe, in everybody’s life in this community by making this community a better place with more and diversified opportunities.”
cwaits@temple-telegram.com
Editor’s Note: This is the last in a series of three stories examining the proposition on the city election ballot that would allow for taxes to be collected for bioscience research in Temple. Early voting on the proposition begins Monday.
