The Tampa Bay Innovation Center is moving closer to opening its new 45,000 square-foot headquarters next year, selecting Beck Architecture LLC in Tampa to design it. The Pinellas Board of County Commissioners officially approved Beck during a virtual meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 6.
The center, a nonprofit tech business accelerator that connects young companies with financing, coaching and coworker space, will double its space in the new building, which will be located on land donated by the City of St. Petersburg just south of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital and across from the University of South Florida’s new business school.
The center received a $7.5 million federal grant in July 2019 to build the new center in downtown St. Petersburg, with Pinellas County kicking in another $4 million to complete the federal matching grant requirement, said Center President and CEO Tonya Elmore.
“Since we secured the land, an innovation district has formed around it,” Elmore said. “We are very excited about the project.”
The design phase should take about a year and groundbreaking is scheduled for July 2021. Construction is expected to take two years.
Elmore started the center as an incubator program in 2003 and it spun out in 2010 to become the Tampa Bay Innovation Center. The new building at 4th Street South and 11th Avenue South will provide space for scientists and engineers who need lab and production space, and tech companies that only require office space, Elmore said.
Company founder and CEO Daniel Badran said Minimise, based in Tampa, is in talks with the Florida Department of Education to put this new system in place, which will be in addition to the energy management that is its core business.
Badran said he will soon announce the 23 school districts the company will serve.
“We are wrapping this into our energy savings,” Badran said. Minimise installs energy monitoring equipment on site at no cost to the customer, then splits the energy cost savings. In light of the school shutdowns in March, he said, the company sought out its own response to COVID-19, which is to monitor indoor air quality and provide sanitation services that are only required every 90 days. There is also no cost to the customer for these services.
“We looked at how we could bring peace of mind to building inhabitants in schools, businesses and restaurants. What could we do to help our clients? We are helping them deal with what is going to be the new normal.”
If its monitoring program determines, for example, that there is too much CO2 in the air, Minimise can suggest solutions, such as opening windows, reducing occupancy or spreading people out. Those are instant solutions, Badran said. Minimise will then work on finding long-term solutions.