 At least a week's worth of headlines were packed into the March 31 ceremony at the University of Maryland BioPark at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB).
There was the opening of Building Two, featuring 238,000 square feet of space-twice the size of the first building-over six floors.
There was the announcement of the creation of the BCCC Life Sciences Institute, a partnership of UMB and Baltimore City Community College that will provide career and technology education programs on the second floor of the new building. Several core BCCC programs, including pre-dental, pre-medical, and pre-pharmacy, also will move to the BioPark, and other science-training programs are expected to follow.
There were about a dozen students from Baltimore City's Vivien T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy at the ceremony, serving notice of the "4+2+2" program that will take graduates of that high school (four years of school) and give them two years at the BCCC program before their final two years of baccalaureate education at UMB.
There was the notice of a partnership between UMB and the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education that will link middle and high school students with professionals from the BioPark's tenant companies. The idea is to expose these students to career options and inform them of the schooling necessary to flourish in those industries.
There was a recognition of new tenants in the BioPark. Paragon Bioservices, Inc., a contract research and manufacturing company, will locate in the just-opened second building. A Goodwill Boutique retail outlet, located on the street level of the 638-space BioPark garage, will serve as a training center for area residents to gain marketable retail skills.
Then, there was the ceremonial groundbreaking on Building Three, a 180,000-square-foot lab and office building at the corner of West Baltimore and South Poppleton streets. That building will be completed next year. Construction also is expected to begin soon on a fourth building, which, when it is finished in 2010, will house the Maryland Forensic Medical Center.
Hundreds of invited guests from the state's education, research, real estate, and biotechnology industries turned out on an overcast, drizzly day for the event. Featured speakers included UMB President David J. Ramsay, DM, DPhil, Rep. Elijah Cummings, Sen. Benjamin Cardin, Mayor Sheila Dixon and Gov. Martin O'Malley. They took turns lauding the University and its business partners on the BioPark project for helping to boost not only the city and state's profile in the wider biotech industry, but for creating learning and employment opportunities for residents of Poppleton, the West Baltimore neighborhood that surrounds the BioPark.
So far, the BioPark has generated $129 million in capital investment and created 200 jobs.
To view a video of the ceremony, click here.
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