Elite business group seeks to make Toronto a powerful engine of life science discovery and commercialization

The successful conclusion of a pending real estate deal in downtown Toronto could usher in a remarkable era of life science research and commercialization if the backers of the MARS Discovery District project have their way. MARS — short for Medical and Related Sciences — is in the final stages of negotiations for a prime locale adjacent to the Univ of Tor-onto and its affiliated teaching hospitals which it wants to transform into a multi-purposed complex of laboratories and office space available for lease. Supporters of the project contend that such a facility represents the base for a powerful multi-site “discovery district” or innovation cluster that will further enhance Toronto’s status as the hub of Canada’s knowledge-based economy.

A not-for-profit corporation has been established to oversee and move the project forward once the land is secured. That should be known within days or weeks as the current owners of the land — the University Health Network (UHN) — decide on whether MARS or a competing private sector developer can purchase the property.

The MARS project is backed by a powerful college of founders and each have reportedly made contributions of $1 million to kick-start the process. They have also approached the Univ of Toronto become a founding partner for a $5 million contribution in return for a seat on its board of directors. The buy-in pitch is being sweetened with an offer of access to space within the proposed facility at preferred leasing rates “for use consistent with the purposes of MARS”. MARS is also seeking provincial assistance for the incubator portion of the project, in line with successful life science incubators throughout North America.

“There are examples of this sort of project at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), the University of Pennsylvania and elsewhere. The University of British Columbia also has some good projects on its campus. Some of the best centres are actively networked incubators,” says Dr John Evans, chair of the MARS board of directors, a MARS founders college member and chairman of Torstar Corp. “This sort of project is usually done in the suburbs where land is less expensive but there’s a real advantage to being close to the sites where people actually work, whether it’s academic or you’re the CFO of a company seeking to commercialize something. We place a real premium on the proximity (of the proposed site) to the University of Toronto and the teaching hospitals.”

PRIVATE SECTOR DRIVEN

The MARS backers stress that the project is private sector driven and its development will largely rely on private sector investment, but public funding of life science research and business incubator support represents an integral part of the vision. In fact, the massive increase in research funding by the federal and Ontario governments underpin much of the rationale for MARS.

A glossy investor’s booklet produced by MARS, states that it’s precisely the recent willingness of governments to support and expand Canada’s research base, that makes cluster development and its attendant commercialization potential so attractive and timely. The document — which contains glowing endorsements of the project, detailed site drawings and quotations from innovations-related reports from the government and university sectors — estimates that the Ontario and federal governments have invested more than $5 billion in basic research initiatives in the past five years. The booklet contains a letter from Evans to Univ of Toronto president Dr Robert Birgeneau, stating that speedy action is required to ensure competitive advantage nationally and internationally.

“If we do not act promptly, we will lose a key opportunity to establish an important leadership step in the new economy and sacrifice much of the local and national value of the intellectual property generated by the current wave of public and private investments in our outstanding research scientists and scholars,” writes Evans. “We will lose talented people and businesses that could be an important contribution to closing the innovation gap and putting Canada on the new economy map.”

The same booklet also contains a letter of support to Evans from the Toronto Academic Health Science Council, an organization comprised of the presidents/CEOs of eight area hospitals. The letter points out that several of these organizations also have lands that “could potentially be developed as part of Project MARS”.

Successful purchase of the lands owned by UHN and others would go far towards alleviating a severe space crunch in Toronto’s downtown core. The lack of available space has reportedly scuttled plans by several life science firms to locate or expand in the Toronto area — a serious liability given the proximity of many venture capital firms in the financial district. Even if the MARS project proceeds, Evans says it will be at least two years before the first phase of the facility is ready for occupancy.

“Something like this will take time as there are rezoning and site development aspects,” says Evans. “The issue right now is, you have to have a plan that is fully developed and people can look at. This is another example of what people are already doing out west, in Montreal and in Ottawa. They all have the same goal which is to harness the economic and job creation value from research.”

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