Test-tube hide maker bound for Brooklyn space

Modern Meadow, a tissue-engineering firm that grows leather in test-tubes and meat via in-vitro, is looking to lease for up to 10,000 square feet in Brooklyn Army Terminal’s BioBAT facility.

The company hopes its bio-fabricated products will be the next big thing on the trendy New York Food scene, reps told Crain’s. Eventually, the start-up’s chief executive told Crain’s, Modern Meadow will create meat that even vegetarians can get behind.

“We grow genuine leather without having to kill animals or wreck the environment,” Chief Executive Andras Forgacs told Crain’s. “And we can dial in certain performance and aesthetic qualities that are appealing to high fashion.”

BioBAT operator SUNY Downstate Medical Center has expanded its laboratory space by 85,000 square feet, and will double the space at its nearby incubator by April of this year.

As New York City has made overtures to the biotech community in recent years, researchers are increasingly eyeing the Big Apple over Silicon Valley. Most recently, the city’s Economic Development Corp. released a request for proposals for an inacubator housing graduates of the Harlem Biosphere, and in December the EDC unveiled a $100 million early-stage funding initiative. [Crain’s] — Julie Strickland