10,000 and 30,000 square feet that would serve as a multi-purpose facility for seedling startups to run experiments, share office space, meet with venture capitalists, and hash out the logistics of turning their ideas into real companies. KiiLN would also cater to companies needing “hotelling,” or occasional access to incubator facilities, according to McKnight. And KiiLN would accomplish this by raising about $3 million to rent out a space right in its own backyard—smack in the middle of East Harlem.
“The main core of it would be wet lab space built like we work in—and we know what we need—and enough to allow companies to grow,” McKnight says. “If we have a nice, clean space that doesn’t need to be gutted and rebuilt, which is our model, we think we need about $3 million.”
This is a little trickier than usual, given that KiiLN is setting itself up as a non-profit organization, and is thus looking for donations—not investment money. KiiLN plans to meet with representatives of the city, the state, and look to initiatives such as the New York City Economic Development Corp., local organizations, and even the pharmaceutical industry to help get the project off the ground. Daehn says KiiLN will likely have to forge a partnership with a major institution to help it get access to core lab equipment, or a big time developer to help navigate the New York real estate market and build out the lab space, to proceed with its plans. Daunting as it seems, KiiLN is encouraged by the support it’s gotten so far.
“We’ve got a growing list of people who are on board,” McKnight says.
The benefits of location, as any New Yorker would say, are significant. East Harlem shoots up from East 96th Street, bracketed on the left side by Fifth Avenue, which hugs the eastern wall of Central Park. It’s stone’s throw away from Mount Sinai, a short cab ride from Columbia University or Rockefeller University, has a key train stop—125th street—to the metro-north railroad line out of the city (as well as the express subway train to Wall Street), and is a quick drive away from LaGuardia Airport in Queens. McKnight says, for instance, that location is a “huge problem” for the only operational biotech incubator in the NY metropolitan area, located at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, because of how far away it is from a lot of the city’s big biomedical research institutions. By comparison, East Harlem represents an opportunity to grab space within close proximity to all of the research centers on New York’s East Side.
“We’ve identified East Harlem as the last semi-affordable part of Manhattan, and it’s not going to be that way for very long either,” she says. “We’ve got to do this now.”
While the KiiLN group, working independently from Mount Sinai, won’t disclose the specific location it has in mind, Daehn says that the area consists of two top floors in a building that comprise somewhere in the range of 10,000 square feet. That space also possesses air rights, giving KiiLN the possibility of expanding upward.
“We are flirting with that one because of the potential,” she says.
The idea, of course, is still in its infancy. KiiLN has built little more than its name, its concept, and an early form website. It has yet to raise the money that it needs, and is in the process of filing its 501(c)(3) tax exemption application to become a non-profit organization, and building customer and partnership relationships necessary to set up the incubator. But here are the logistics of the plan it has in mind.
KiiLN’s 10,000-square-foot space would provide space for as many as 20 companies. That incubator would be flexible. For example, if a larger group of six people could pay a little bit more, they could have a private, lockable lab. On the other hand, an individual or two-person startup could have access to a lab bench and shared equipment like centrifuges, tissue culturehoods, and other items, while also having their own smaller lockable storage space. The incubator would have an auditorium to hold seminars and community gatherings, while providing key scientific materials like buffers, or chemical stocks, so that startups wouldn’t have to run out and buy them.
“We really want to bring down the costs for these startups,” McKnight says.
KiiLN wouldn’t take equity in the companies that it helps. Rather, it would primarily get revenue by renting out the space to each startup at a “very competitive price per square foot,” according to McKnight. KiiLN is also considering the idea of fees for services, like a technician coming in to maintain a cell line, or annual membership fees which would give people access to all of its networking events and seminars. It wants to get not just people, but local institutions, medical centers, and schools involved as members to learn about startups and work together.
“It kind of gives the people the feel that they belong and that this is part of their effort,” Daehn says.
If the idea sounds familiar, it’s because KiiLN has a good relationship with LabCentral, the non-profit organization bringing an incubator to Cambridge, MA. LabCentral is scheduled to open in November—as is Harlem Biospace.
“A lot of our ideas really align with them,” she says of LabCentral. “It’s funny- we came up with this idea on our own, but they’re really trying to do something very similar. And what we’re really encouraged by is the need for that even in Cambridge.”
In the meantime, McKnight says KiiLN is building a “virtual” incubator on its website to build a breathing community of young life sciences entrepreneurs from the city, setting up webinars, online discussion rooms, and ways to offer help to innovators looking for advice. The idea is to truly keep the concept alive and create awareness while KiiLN works to get to the point of a ribbon-cutting ceremony somewhere north of East 96th.
“We want it to be a resource and keep the name of KiiLN alive,” Daehn says. “So when the doors open and people really know what we’re up to, there is a sense of community and everyone is a part of it.”
