Betsy McCaw, president and CEO of 16 Tech Community Corporation, is looking to innovate. She’s not looking to simply lead her own business; she’s looking to build a community that will develop to retain and attract talent to the city and will hopefully strengthen the regional economy.
Encompassing 60 acres of land, 16 Tech rests along Indiana Avenue between 10th and 16th streets near several city hotspots such as IUPUI, IU Health and a variety of neighborhoods such as Riverside and Near Westside.
The master plan of 16 Tech is to provide flexible research space for industries such as technology, life sciences and advanced manufacturing, in addition to developing a prevalent place to live, work and play. Anchor tenant, The Indiana Biosciences Research Institute, a $360 million industry-led institute, will be the first organization to ignite the area.
The Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper spoke with McCaw to learn more about the future of the project and how it will impact surrounding communities.
Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper: In your opinion, what is an innovation community?
McCaw: It’s a place for talented people to come together to create opportunities. Our purpose here is to create access, opportunity and growth for what exists in the city. An innovation community provides a platform to do that. It’s bringing together partners across industries, research institutions, neighborhoods and universities.
It creates this campus-within-a-campus or city-within-a-city feel. You’ve got the university and all of the research systems (in the area), you have the hospitals, neighborhoods that are very engaged and also the history of Indiana Avenue. Our hope is that it will look like downtown in 10–15 years.
Much of this innovation plan involves attracting and retaining talent. What is the strategy to change the focus of attracting new talent?
There will be talent that wants to interact with specific companies in 16 Tech, and part of that draw is who those anchor and initial tenants will be. Companies are already interested in coming here. Some will want to work there, and others will just want to simply interact with it. They may have a membership to TechShop or come on-site for various events those companies may hold. We hope that over time people and companies will interact with the area then eventually move to the area.
When you talk about talent from a variety of different fields, what other specific industries are you looking to attract besides technology, life sciences and advanced manufacturing?
We’ll have “maker space” (a collaborative area where artisans have access to industrial tools and programming) here with TechShop, and Rolls Royce, as well as some of the engineering institutions around the state, are very interested in that.
We’ve also been talking to those involved in the arts to enhance public art in a space by using music, especially with the history of The Avenue. Anyone who is doing structural art can also use that maker space. Right now, all of those industries are sitting in their own spaces, and we want to bring them together. We would also love to bring the Cultural Trail through.
What do you say to those who look at this project as another way to gentrify historic neighborhoods?
From a technical standpoint, we don’t touch any residential properties, which is really important to us. They don’t want taxes to go up or to be moved out of their homes, whether they can’t afford it or someone drops a townhouse next door. I respect all of those issues, and I’m hopeful the neighbors of the area have the strength to work well with developers and voice their concerns.
A study conducted by Battelle estimates that Phase 1 of 16 Tech development will create more than 2,678 jobs, and 61 percent will be entry-level and middle-skill jobs. With so many developments focusing on high-skill jobs when developing in low-income areas, why are these results important for 16 Tech?
Battelle did a significant amount of research and found we’re not retaining much talent here in central Indiana. We then had them (Battelle) go back and study the opportunity available at 16 Tech. They took the master plan and the general uses at the time and compared that to other innovation districts around the country. They looked at types of jobs that existed in other districts, and some of them are science or multi-industry focused, and they looked at the type of jobs we hope to have at 16 Tech and came back to us with those statistics. We hope everyone can find an opportunity at 16 Tech.
The 16 Tech Community Corporation, established in September 2015, was approved for $75 million in tax increment financing (TIF) bonds by the City-County Council in November 2015 for the infrastructure adjustment to begin. How exactly will that money be used?
Of that $75 million, we will use $56 million to $59 million. One of the reasons this area was never fully developed is because so much of the water infrastructure is underground.
For more information on 16 Tech, visit 16TechIndy.com.
