Plans announced for two new buildings at Innovation Square

April 19, 2011

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Planning is under way for the two newest buildings at Innovation Square, the 24/7 live/work/play research environment being developed along Southwest Second Avenue between the University of Florida campus and downtown Gainesville, UF President Bernie Machen announced today.

Representatives of TriMark Properties, the developer, are taking reservations to lease or purchase space in the first building, to be known as the Infusion Technology Center. The center is planned as a 120,000-square-foot building that will house existing science and technology companies. It will share an atrium with the Florida Innovation Hub at UF, a 50,000-square-foot super incubator scheduled to open this fall.

The Infusion Technology Center will be LEED certified and will include custom-built laboratories, research and high-tech space. The ground floor will include space for retail, restaurants and cafes.

The center will include a fiber-optic ethernet network with Internet access and private line service with speeds up to a gigabit per second, managed by a local support team. Groundbreaking is scheduled for later this year, with occupancy expected by late 2012.

“Clearly, Innovation Square is becoming the vital, productive and vibrant area we envisioned when we broke ground last year on Innovation Hub,” Machen said. “It’s pretty amazing to see it all take shape.”

The second will be a residence hall to house entrepreneurial-minded students. It will be the first of its kind in the nation designed from the ground up as an entrepreneurial-based academic community.

Also to be LEED certified, it will feature up to 120 beds, including studios and one- and two-bedroom apartments, and academic space, a shared business center and shared video conference rooms.

Built in a public-private partnership, the residence hall also will feature a penthouse for visiting venture capitalists and CEOs who will be encouraged to meet with those students and share what they’ve learned over the years about how to launch and grow a company.

In the spirit of other young inventors who have turned whatever space was available into a laboratory, the incubator at Innovation Square also will include a “garage” where students will be able to gather and exchange ideas and even build prototypes.

Groundbreaking and completion dates have not yet been determined.

Machen unveiled plans in November for Innovation Square, projected to cover at least 40 acres and to include at least 1 million square feet as it is built out during the next 10 years. Its purpose is to bring together science and technology, business opportunities, and retail and residential space in one location.

The UF Board of Trustees in March approved the creation of a direct-support organization, the University of Florida Development Corporation, to handle the selling, acquiring, leasing and marketing of the Innovation Square area.

More information about Innovation Square is available at www.innovationsquare.ufl.edu.