10 Jan Q&A: University Research Park director grows science with real estate
If you’ve driven by University Research Park lately, you might have noticed the huge hole in the ground at the corner of Mineral Point Road and Whitney Way. That’s the future site of Element Labs, a five-story, 142,000-square-foot laboratory building where up to 20 bioscience companies will be able to rent space.
The building, scheduled to open in summer 2023, is just one component of a larger project called the Element Collective District. That will bring new amenities to the 250-acre research park, including 180 apartments, a 120-room hotel, retail space and a restaurant. Such amenities were part of the original plans University of Wisconsin-Madison officials put forth when they envisioned the park in 1983, but they’ve yet to be included.
Aaron Olver is managing director of the nonprofit UW-Madison affiliate, which is designed to provide a space for commercializing discoveries made on campus.