UNM President Bob Frank was the guest speaker at Albuquerque Economic Forum breakfast on Wednesday, May 11. The President spoke about UNM’s focused goal of creating and nurturing new companies and how this will be an important factor in the success of Innovate ABQ, the innovation district development project that will soon break ground for its Phase I building in downtown Albuquerque.
STC.UNM, the University’s technology transfer and economic development organization, has spun out 11 start-up companies this year—a record for the organization. Over the past ten years, 102 start-up companies have been created from UNM technologies. Approximately 60 percent of the companies are still in business, which is above the national university start-up rate of 50 percent.
The Phase I, six-story building will encompass 158,830 square foot. The ground floor (29,485 square feet) will house STC.UNM; it’s start-up incubator, the Cecchi VentureLab (CVL); Innovate New Mexico®, the statewide new collaborative program to provide easy access for entrepreneurs, investors, and companies to cutting-edge technologies at New Mexico’s six research institutions; the UNM Innovation Academy; Air Force Research Laboratory; a Nusenda Branch Bank; and a café. The upper five floors will house 155 apartments (2 bedroom/2bath units) and a small fitness center for upper level and graduate students from the Innovation Academy. The building’s opening is scheduled for August 2017.
See Joe Cardillo’s May 11th article, “UNM president: Here’s what we’ll measure to know if Innovate ABQ has been successful,” from Albuquerque Business First, at http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/news/2016/05/11/unm-bob-frank-innovate-abq-startups-created.html.