Sustainability Biotech Hub to open at Navy Yard

March 3, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office

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BROOKLYN NAVY YARD – The mayor’s office and the New York City Economic Development Corporation announced that a first-of-its-kind $20 million center for biotechnology research will open at the Brooklyn Navy Yard at Building 303.

NYCEDC and the mayor’s office partnered with Newlab, the Partnership Fund for New York City and Empire State Development.

The 50,000-square-foot innovation space is expected to open in 2025 and advances Mayor Adams’ efforts to make New York City the global center of sustainable technology by leveraging the city’s growing life sciences and biotechnology industries.

The Navy Yard location will be the first commercial hub for sustainable biotechnology in the United States and will help position New York City as the nation’s leading life sciences market, while also producing new technologies that will help address climate change and advance the city’s carbon neutrality goals.

The center will receive a $20 million investment as part of the city’s LifeSci NYC initiative. It will create more than 400 high-quality jobs and support a new generation of scientists, innovators, and entrepreneurs through office space, research laboratories, and events and programming space.

“The way to create the jobs of the future is by supporting companies solving some of the most pressing challenges of our time, like climate change and carbon emissions,” said Mayor Adams.

Lindsay Greene. Photo credit goes to JC Cancedda Photography.

“These companies are not only making our city and planet more sustainable, they are providing career opportunities for working New Yorkers. This is the future, and it’s happening right here in New York City.”

“A first-of-its-kind incubator, this new life science hub will not only provide the resources sustainably-minded companies need to advance their work in food tech, fashion or building materials, and more, but it will also create jobs for New Yorkers and position our city as a leader in developing the solutions that will help protect our planet in the long term and ensuring those solutions come from diverse communities across New York City,” said Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation President & CEO Lindsay Greene.

“With a growing number of life science clusters and an ecosystem of businesses at the cutting-edge of their fields, the Navy Yard’s Building 303 is the perfect location to advance this type of innovation. We are grateful to Mayor Adams for his leadership in this space and look forward to welcoming the visionary scientists and entrepreneurs that represent the future of the sector.”

The Brooklyn Navy Yard. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Navy Yard

The Brooklyn Navy Yard is already home to a thriving life sciences industry, with a wide range of businesses pioneering new practices in sustainable biology. To mark this historic investment, Mayor Adams visited the following life science businesses today at the Navy Yard:

Kintra Fibers, a materials science company creating bio-synthetic resin and yarns for the fashion industry.
Next Step Labs, a Black-owned company focused on the development of cosmetic and personal care products using primarily natural ingredients and formulations.
TomTex, a company developing a high-performance material out of seashell and mushroom waste that is a plastic-free and 100 percent naturally biodegradable alternative to synthetic and animal leathers.

As an additional part of this effort, NYCEDC is actively seeking a location and operator for a Materials Innovation Hub, which will focus on early-stage companies and research and development, bringing new materials from lab to market. Advancing innovation in materials has the potential to revolutionize key industries that drive the city’s economy, from fashion and construction to plastics and health care.

Andrew Kimball. Photo courtesy of Economic Development Corporation

These investments also deliver on commitments made in Mayor Adams’ “Rebuild, Renew, Reinvent: A Blueprint for New York City’s Economic Recovery,” where he highlighted the importance of life sciences and outlined an expansion into three new areas:

Med-tech – developing new tools for medical diagnosis, monitoring and treatment;
Bioengineering – applying engineering principles to life sciences product development; and
Planetary health – using lab-based innovations to address climate change.