Dean Kamen knows about renovating old brick buildings in Manchester’s Milliard after opening the DEKA Research and Development Corporation here four decades ago.
Just over a year ago, Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing, a nonprofit Kamen founded in 2016, called BioFabFoundries, a 25,000-square-foot facility with “clean labs” at 540 N. Commercial St. That place is now at capacity.
Kamen’s View at 150 Dow St. Acquisitions continue to grow, once the home of Dine, the internet performance company purchased by Oracle in 2016. The space is now used for the next steps in the effort to produce human cells and tissues. and bodies.
“I think people don’t realize how fast this is going to go,” Kamen said. “In a relatively short time Manchester will emerge as the center of the new industry.
Dean Kamen, RMI’s executive director, announced on Thursday that the 540 Commercial St. in Manchester. Leads a tour.
Thomas Roy/Leader of Union
About a quarter of the building — 100,000 square feet — will be converted into a biomanufacturing and training facility for RMI. Dain’s place has been vacant for at least three years.
Kamen and his business partner, Robert Tuttle, bought the building from Carlyle Capital earlier this year for $23 million. Kamen said they don’t want to put the burden on the non-profit organization.
According to Tuttle, the two Carlyle Capital They bought the building at the same time he bought it in 2017 and wanted to buy it later.
“The frustrating thing for (Carlisle) was that he couldn’t fill that position,” he said. “They tried for years and couldn’t rent a shoe.”
Current leases in the building will remain in place; Tenants fill about half of the usable space in the mill.
Original plans that called for RMI to build a new lab site on the National Guard Armory site fell through.
Last week, Kamen and executive vice president Maureen Toohey showed off the clean labs at 540 N. Commercial St., 150 across the street from Dow.
“These clean rooms are perfect for development and early-stage clinical testing,” Toohey said. The space at 150 Dow will be used for more advanced clinical trials and commercial biomanufacturing.
“We are still in the process of designing the new space,” she said.
The expansion to 150 Dow comes as RMI partner United Therapeutics expands to 80,000 square feet at 100 Commercial St. It is currently undergoing a $26 million renovation, according to building permits. United Therapeutics CEO Martin Rothblatt is committed to making history in space.
“The sole purpose of that building is to be the first manufacturer of an FDA-approved replacement human organ,” Kamen said.
RMI was founded with an $80 million federal grant to focus on large-scale production of human cells, tissues and organs. The organization now has more than 190 member partners, each of which owns its intellectual property rights.
Kamen has an ownership interest in 540 N. Commercial Street and eight Commercial Street properties – Nos. 50, 70, 88, 100, 286, 324, 340 and 400. The partnership also owns 500 Commercial St.
Tuttle acknowledged that the partnership would have to pay “at market” to lock down the position. Kamen called it an insurance policy for future growth.
Dean Kamen, RMI’s executive director, said at 150 Dow St., where the nonprofit is expanding. He is standing nearby.
Thomas Roy/Leader of Union
Biofab hub
The redevelopment of the site is being funded by $44 million from the U.S. Economic Development Administration and more than $12.5 million in matching funds.
The emergence of a biomanufacturing cluster will “transform the economy of southern New Hampshire,” further growing the remanufacturing industry, creating new high-quality jobs and increasing wages, according to the project’s narrative.
The project is expected to bring about 7,000 direct jobs and create opportunities for universities, early stage company incubators, wet labs for research and development and supply chain partners.
It is expected that the number of contributing member organizations will increase and provide long-term sustainability.
According to Jeremy Hitchcock, founder and former CEO of Dean, this new use represents the evolution of the 150 Dow, where knitting was once made and the infrastructure of the Internet was later built.
“Dine represents a generation of innovation, and the RMI and some of the bio things happening in Manchester are a brave new future for the city,” he said.
Hitchcock sold Manchester with the idea that it would become the center of the emerging industry.
“We have people at United Therapeutics that operate across the country, whether it’s in San Francisco,” he said.
ARMI training
Kamen acknowledged that Manchester might not be the first place the industry might choose to grow, but noted the city’s proximity to the likes of Dartmouth College and Harvard Medical School.
“You look, and we are in the middle of a very educated cross-section of engineering schools and medical schools and institutions,” he said.
Plans for 150 Dow include building 80,254 square feet over two floors for clean rooms and biomanufacturing labs, which is expected to cost $31.2 million. The facility will also have space for contract manufacturing firms that work with companies on small-scale trials.
The companies open their own facilities in places like Silicon Valley or other industry-oriented regions of the country.
RMI Executive Director Dean Kamen talks about the nonprofit’s growth in the hallways at 540 Commercial St. in Manchester.
Thomas Roy/Leader of Union
Why is the automotive industry centered around Detroit? It wasn’t for the weather,” Kamen said. “They need iron. They need iron. They needed machine shops to do casting and forging. And then they need glass and rubber.
On one floor, 25,973 square meters of space will be used for training, laboratories, classrooms and meeting space to be built at a cost of $5.2 million. The location is expected to open next summer.
“We are also developing a proven work experience program to train the workforce needed for this,” Toohey said.
Mike Dessell, chief workforce officer at ARMI and dean of the University of New Hampshire-Manchester, said UNH and Southern New Hampshire University are creating workforce programs.
“It’s important to hire people with the right basic training and the right basic skills,” he said.
The training facility will be focused around the specific needs of contract manufacturing.
“The way ARMI thinks about it, there will be a lot of different programs (at the training center),” he said. Some are also done by RMI, UNH and other partners and suppliers.
Kamen knows that some people are skeptical about ARMI’s overall mission.
“I learned not to give up on people who can’t see the future,” Kamen said. “Of course, we wouldn’t be special if everyone could see it. This city is not compared to other cities that have more wealth. I’m glad that most people don’t see the future clearly, because this presents a real opportunity for us.
He remembers being laughed at by the locals after he left New York and invested billions.
“There’s a reason why 150 years ago this was the largest single industrial complex in the world,” Kamen said.
Milliard has supported a wide range of industries over the years.
“We knew we would eventually become a focused new industry, and now we have,” he said.
