SA grants $8.5M for life sciences nonprofit to create more labs

San Antonio will grant $8.5 million for a local nonprofit to expand the life sciences campus it’s developing on the near East Side.

The Texas Research and Technology Foundation will use the money to expand the 12-acre hub for life sciences companies and researchers along Cherry Street, between Center and Houston streets, the San Antonio Express News reported. The group has already invested about $60 million into converting the Merchants Ice complex into a 140,000-square-foot lab and office compound for bioscience tenants.

Gene therapy company Scorpion Biological Services, and therapeutics firm GenCure are among the tenants. Those two companies combined have created almost 200 jobs, said Rene Dominguez, the nonprofit’s president and CEO.

The complex in San Antonio’s Dignowity Hill neighborhood is half-completed and set to be finished this year. The expansion will cover the site of the demolished G.J. Sutton building, which the group bought last year.

Named for the first Black state legislator from Bexar County, the G.J. Sutton property will keep the Sutton name, one of the state’s conditions for selling the land.

The more than $800 million expansion will include 680,000 square feet of office, lab, retail and commercial space for the lot at 321 Center Street. The $8.5 million granted by the city will help cover the approximately $7 million worth of infrastructure improvements needed for the complex.

The Texas Biomedical Research Institute was selected last month as a prime contractor for a federal agency that develops countermeasures against bioterrorism, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. The company will receive up to $100 million in funding from the federal agency for its research.

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