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Draper Confirms Bay Area Labs

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By RICHARD MULLINS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 29, 2008

TAMPA - Draper Laboratory made it official Monday.

Executives with the Massachusetts-based, nonprofit research corporation acknowledged that it will build labs worth $30 million at the University of South Florida in Tampa and a new microchip manufacturing facility in St. Petersburg.

A deal to lure Draper had been in the works for some time, with varying levels of secrecy. At one point this year, Hillsborough County voted to give an anonymous lab an incentive package to come to Tampa Bay. That lab turned out to be Draper.

"We work on what we consider important problems for the nation: security, health, energy and the environment, space and food," said Len Polizzotto, principal director for marketing and strategic business development at Draper. "We looked at many places around the nation, and Florida turned out to have the best combination, all things considered."

The deal comes with a raft of economic development incentives for Draper from the state of Florida, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. Between the two locations, the lab will employ 165 people with an average wage of $75,000, according to Gov. Charlie Crist's office.

Draper is among a handful of nationally renowned research groups that explore long-term technical projects, often by contract with the federal government - then spins off the technology into new ventures or corporations.

To help lure Draper here, state officials gathered $15 million for the multilocation, multicounty project from Florida's Innovation Incentive Fund. Hillsborough commissioners authorized $6 million in incentives.

At USF, Draper proposes to explore micro technologies for health and medicine. For example, Draper already has a project in Massachusetts that implants tiny devices behind the eyeballs to deliver medicine for illnesses such as degeneration of the eye tissue.

In St. Petersburg, Draper plans a microchip design and manufacturing site focusing on ways to produce more custom-made chips that handle complex tasks with a tiny amount of space and power.

Making another local link, Draper also cut a deal to work with Progress Energy Inc. on new sensors that improve the efficiency of coal-burning power plants. "We're excited to be a part of bringing this level of cutting edge research to the Tampa Bay region," said Jeff Lyash, president and CEO of Progress Energy Florida.

Hillsborough County and the University of South Florida are collaborating to provide a site at USF. Funding to design and build the new St. Petersburg facility will come from Pinellas County, Progress Energy, the Florida High Tech Corridor Council and Draper Laboratory. The City of St. Petersburg is providing land for its Draper site.

The deal marks the second major research coup for the Tampa Bay area. Last year, a similar national research group opened offices in St. Petersburg, SRI International. SRI has since cut research deals with the U.S. Navy and major shipping ports and is working on devices to make energy from ocean waves.

Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at (813) 259-7919 or

rmullins@tampatrib.com.

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