It’s only a matter of time before the Pennovation Center’s three floors are bustling with energetic thinkers and doers. By summer’s end, the 58,000-square-foot space—an anchor for the Pennovation Works development site adjacent to the University’s campus—will be completed.
“It will be a place where ideas go to work in a cool, innovative space filled with a community of entrepreneurs,” says Anne Papageorge, vice president for Facilities and Real Estate Services (FRES) at Penn.
The space, before it was even developed, proved its potential and need. The Pennovation Works site has been home since 2010 to aerial robotics company KMel Robotics, a spinoff of the GRASP Lab, which grew from a startup to its acquisition by the Fortune 500 company Qualcomm last year.
With the Pennovation Center set to become a one-of-a-kind place in the region, Benjamin’s Desk, an innovation network with two existing co-working spaces in Philadelphia, will power the Center's first two floors. It will supply a managing director, community manager, and lab manager, and experienced staff will help run the space.
“Anyone has a chance to invent their future within this space,” says Shelton Mercer, chief strategy officer of Benjamin’s Desk.
Unique by design, the Pennovation Center will offer cost-effective, short-term leases, or “memberships,” for companies, entrepreneurs, and inventors. The first and second floors will be made up of 200-plus co-working desk stations, multiple conference rooms, four private office suites, five “startup garages,” and wet and dry laboratories equipped with all the basic research necessities. It will also have a common kitchenette and an onsite café for members’ convenience.
Prices range from $99 per month for a non-dedicated desk five days a week to $1,999 per month for a private office space. Lab benches are around $999 per month.
“We call the lab spaces ‘starter labs,’” says Paul Sehnert, director of real estate development for FRES. “They are basically a place for a biologist or chemist, for example, to perfect their products. Think of it as the ‘makerspace’ for those who are just starting up. It’s a very rare commodity.”
The top floor of the Pennovation Center has already begun taking shape as a base for PERCH, the Penn Engineering Research and Collaboration Hub. It’s home to several integrated, multidisciplinary projects with students and faculty from mainly three labs in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, including the ModLab, under Mark Yim, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics and director of the Integrated Product Design master’s program; the Multi-Robot Systems Laboratory, under Vijay Kumar, the Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering; and the Kod*lab, under Daniel Koditschek, the Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering.
“The third floor PERCH site offers us a unique, open, and flexible area for collaboration and sharing of equipment and ideas,” says Koditschek, PERCH’s inaugural director. “We also have a large outdoor space on the grounds of Pennovation Works for running and flying our robots.”
The first corporate tenant of the Pennovation Center was announced in May. Hershey Co. will base its Advanced Technology & Foresight Lab on the Pennovation Center’s second floor, as a means to explore technologies and prototypes that fall outside its traditional focus.
“Hershey Co., as well as other companies, want to be in this incubator environment where ideas are cooking,” says Sehnert, adding that other corporate tenants or sponsors are expected to sign on with the Pennovation Center within the next few months.
Penn Center for Innovation (PCI) Ventures, the company formation and technology transfer entity at the University, will set up shop on the second floor as well. Aside from providing workspace for accepted program participants, it will work with Benjamin’s Desk to produce and host a series of events, trainings, and meetings, including Penn I-Corps, AppItUp, Startup Grind, and CoFoundersLab.
“Within the Center, there will be a large central bleacher on the first floor and a smaller one on the second,” says Papageorge. “The idea is that there will be places where talks can happen, where entrepreneurs can practice their pitches, and more. Also, there will be an outdoor plaza where events and networking can occur.”
As part of the 23-acre Pennovation Works, a composite of facilities housing the likes of the Penn Vet Working Dog Center, Penn Design Studio, and Penn Dental Research Greenhouse, the Pennovation Center, at 3401 Grays Ferry Ave., is just one building makeover at the nucleus that is expected to help transform the area. Others include the existing Lab Building and Office Building. Construction on the latter is slated to begin this summer, says Papageorge.
“As the architects would say, these buildings have good bones,” says Sehnert. “The Lab Building and the Office Building need fixing up, but they’re both keepers.”
The hope, Papageorge says, is that companies in the Pennovation Center will be able to “graduate” into bigger space within the Lab or Office buildings. Penn also has “development parcels” on the Pennovation Works site that are considered future development areas.
“The idea is that we want to provide growth opportunities,” says Sehnert, hinting at keeping these new companies in a similar location. Plus, Pennovation Works is a perfect area for a startup—it’s in a Keystone Innovation Zone, allowing tax incentives for growing companies under eight years old.
“We’ve all been to places where you walk in and there’s an energy to it,” says Papageorge. “Our goal when you come to the Pennovation Center, and Pennovation Works, is that you will just feel a certain entrepreneurial spirit in this innovation ecosystem.”
