University Research Park plans east-side expansion

Madison, Wis. — The University Research Park is expanding on Madison's east side, into a 6,000-square-foot space in a large industrial building that will be renovated and made available for startup companies sometime next year.

The building, at 1245 E. Washington Ave., was formerly owned by Marquip Inc., which makes equipment used to process cardboard and paperboard. It will offer 10 suites to high-tech entrepreneurs, according to the Wisconsin State Journal, which said URP would lease only a small part of the 236,000 building and would not initially offer wet labs for biotech companies.

"This is part of a Wisconsin Idea-related effort to reach out in a strategically important way to help the economy of Madison and this particular part of the city," said Mark Bugher, director of the University Research Park, in a statement. "In addition to being a place for incubation, this also represents an economic development statement by the university: We can help Madison and surrounding communities grow their economies in positive ways."

It's a step across the Isthmus for URP, which houses 115 companies at its west-side campus. This March it announced a second "Accelerator" building, a 65,000-square-foot facility for life science companies that have moved past their earliest stages. The first Accelerator building is full and houses firms including the stem-cell companies co-founded by Jamie Thomson, whose groundbreaking research took place at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, URP's partner.

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