The district received voter approval in May to become a taxing entity. Money from the taxes will be used to develop and staff the accelerator, which will provide space and staff for the project.
However, the bioscience district tax won’t be collected until 2010 and won’t be available to the district until January 2011.
“We don’t want to wait, we want to move forward,” said Wendell Williams, president of the Temple Health and Bioscience Economic Development District board.
Board member Jack Morris agreed. “I think we need to move as quick as we can,” he said.
It’s important to get someone in place who can work with the district’s academic partners to garner support for the proposed blueprint of the bioscience accelerator, Williams said.
The board decided at its meeting this week to hire an interim director to get the accelerator project up and running. The target date is to hire someone by Aug. 1.
The goal is to make it a community-wide accelerator - not just a Temple Health and Science District Bioscience accelerator - in which all academic partners are active players, he said.
“That’s going to be the key to success,” Williams said. “They, the academic partners, are active participants in it and they understand the concept associated with it.”
The likely location of the accelerator will be the Bioscience and Research Academic Campus at Kegley and Highway 36, but where on campus has yet to be decided.
The board and its partners will need to determine the location, design, cost, financing and required staffing this year. If all is accomplished in a timely fashion and construction on the accelerator begins in early 2010, completion has a target date of summer 2010.
“That is very preliminary, because we have a lot to do, people to bring in to start these discussions so we can meet this target,” Williams said. “I do believe that the consensus absolutely was, let’s not sit here until January 2011 and start at that point in time.”
The quick turnaround will be possible if space within the West Campus building is used, rather than building a freestanding structure, he said. It will entail reconfiguring and redesigning some office and conference room space and construction of some labs.
The labs are going to be very basic, said Dr. Wally Dyck, bioscience district consultant.
Williams appointed Greg Gilkerson to head up an interview committee, with Thomas Baird, Morris and Dyck assisting.
