The City of Columbus and Ohio State University are partnering with a venture capital firm to develop technology and biotech startup space in Franklinton and on campus.
Columbus venture capital firm Rev1 Ventures, with the help of the city, will open 43,000 square feet in Franklinton’s Peninsula development late next summer, designed to house its own offices and high-tech startups. It plans to lease space for what it calls “Software Array.”
Following the move, Rev1 plans to partner with Ohio State University to establish a lab for life science startups at the university’s Carmenton Technology and Bio Campus at Lane Avenue and Kenny Road.
“This is the first space like this in the Columbus area,” said Rev1 CEO Tom Walker. “Startups need flexible space to grow their companies.”
The two spaces will replace Rev1’s current space on Kinnear Road. The company plans to move its 25 to 30 staff to the ground floor of its Peninsula office, with co-working and event space for tech startups on the second floor.
Rev1 will pay for the space in part with donations from the city of Columbus. The City of Columbus has donated between $188,000 and $500,000 annually to Rev1 since 2007. The city plans to donate $250,000 to the company this year, the same amount it donated to the city of Columbus. For the past 6 years.
Rev1’s move will also help fill vacant offices on the peninsula, which will no longer have offices in the next phase.
The second part of Rev1’s plan will see the company’s Kinnear Road wet lab space replaced by a new lab called the Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Center, which is currently being designed for the Carmenton campus.
“Kinnear’s current space includes a general wet lab,” Walker said. “Traditionally, these have been the main wet labs for advanced science spin-outs. They were built in the ’90s. The space was great, but we’ve been there for 30, 35 years. I’m trying.”
Walker said the new wet lab space in Carmenton will be completed in two to three years.
According to a news release announcing the expansion, Rev1 has supported more than 1,400 startups and generated more than $3.3 billion in impact in central Ohio. The startups include MentorcliQ, a Columbus company that operates software that helps companies manage mentoring programs.
“It’s empowering to be around other founders who are building high-growth companies,” Phil George, founder and CEO of MentorcliQ, said in a news release. “Every day brings new challenges and opportunities. Rev1 understands these needs.”
jweiker@dispatch.com
@JimWeiker
