Ottawa Innovation Hub

[the capital urbanite]

Innovation Hub "gets serious"
By Ottawa Business Journal Staff
Fri, Apr 18, 2008 1:00 PM EST

Chris Henderson, chair of The Ottawa Partnership (TOP), told business leaders, academics and politicians last week that a preliminary plan for the hub will be presented to Ontario's Minister of Research and Innovation, John Wilkinson, within a month. The provincial government will be asked to make a multimillion-dollar investment to finance the construction and ongoing operations of the hub.

It is intended to be the focal point for entrepreneurs launching new ideas and businesses, with an objective to speed up and aid the commercialization process.

Mr. Henderson told TOP members there are "serious ongoing discussions" for a high-profile downtown real estate location. The building in mind will need renovations, he said, but could be completed this year.

He declined to give a precise location, because [hmmm...online article is missing the end of the sentence here...]

TOP had investigated occupying the former Ottawa central train station, now the federal Government Conference Centre at 1 Nicholas St., as a site for the hub. However, Mr. Henderson said Friday that it had been ruled out, with architects saying it would take more than $90 million to upgrade the facility.

Mr. Henderson said it's time for Queen's Park to fund Ottawa to the same tune it has other Ontario municipalities. He pointed to similar investments in Toronto, where its MaRS facilities have received $90 million, and Kingston, where a partnership led by Queen's University has received $28 million.

He said the business community cannot let the proposal get bogged down in government red tape. "We need to push this forward like we did the Congress Centre," he said.

Representatives from OCRI, Nortel Networks and local universities and colleges voiced their support for the project.

"We need to get serious about this," said Bob Gillett, president and CEO of Algonquin College.

During a 20-minute presentation to TOP members, Mr. Henderson said the Innovation Hub would lead to better collaboration between private and public organizations in Ottawa, which are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on R&D. The new facility would not focus on a single technology; rather it would encourage entrepreneurs from sectors as diverse as life sciences, software and telecommunications to work together to uncover new business opportunities.

In addition to office space, the hub will congregate professional services – legal, intellectual property, accounting, finance – into one location. It's likely that entrepreneurs and their business plans would be vetted by a committee before securing space in the hub. Entrepreneurs would pay for operating expenses during their stay.

"We're good at turning money into research in Ottawa. We need to be better at turning research into money," said Mr. Henderson.

[c_speed3108]

A firm proposal for an innovation hub in Ottawa is only weeks away
Jake Rupert, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Friday, April 18, 2008

OTTAWA - A firm proposal for an innovation hub in Ottawa is only weeks away, a group of business, civic, and education leaders say.

They say they are looking seriously at two downtown properties for a centre that would will help accelerate the development and commercialization of new ideas.

The group says Ottawa is behind other cities when it comes to integrating and maximizing its economic strengths, and they roundly support the centre as a way to fix this.


The Ottawa Partnership group's co-chair, Christopher Henderson, says the project will largely be driven and financed by the private sector, but they are actively seeking funding from the provincial and federal governments. He estimated the centre will cost $20-million over 10 years in both capital and operating expenses.

The idea behind the centre is that good things happen when the research and development branches of governments, universities, colleges, and businesses have a place to interact. Mr. Henderson said city's across the world recognize this and have created such centres in the last decade.

In Ontario, Toronto, London and Kingston have established or are in the process of establishing such centres.

Mayor Larry O'Brien, who co-chairs the group, said the city has become too big to rely on informal interaction between its various research and development professionals, and that he's a big supporter of the idea.

"I expect this to be a key economic driver in this city," the mayor said. "We need to move ahead on this. We can't afford to let this slip through our fingers."

Mr. Henderson agreed.

"We are behind already," he said. "We don't have a driving force for the next generation of innovation. This will provide that."


© The Ottawa Citizen 2008

[c_speed3108]

Trying to think where this might be. ...

-The office tower in the Rideau centre came to mind. Not sure how big they would want.

-Former US embassy (might be too small)

hmmmm

[rodionx]

We've got empty spaces downtown, but not a lot of empty buildings. It would have to be someplace reasonably prominent, with space for meetings and exhibitions, but not necessarily a lot of office space. The old US embassy would be nice, but I doubt they could pry it out of Harper's hands. Maybe they found some dumpy commercial building they can bring back to life.