If you’ve passed by a downtown Franklin building, you wouldn’t have noticed the work going on inside to research new pharmaceutical drugs.
B2S Life Sciences announced plans to move its laboratory division, B2S Labs, to Franklin last year and remodel a historic building at 97 E. Monroe St. This summer, the lab started operating out of the building, but not in the space originally planned.
And now, company officials are looking at a new plan for how to use the building, and partners and investors to help finish the work after the cost of remodeling doubled due to structural issues with the building, said Aleks Davis, chief executive officer.
Over the last several months, work was done to the exterior of the building, including removing paint and doing brick work. But inside, officials discovered structural problems due to the second story being removed years ago. Those issues have at least doubled the cost of the remodeling project, Davis said. Officials had originally said the company would invest $1 million into the building and equipment.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryDoing that work would have significantly set back the company’s plan to move into the space, he said.
"To do that would have meant we would have had to put off moving in for another year," Davis said.
So, officials instead had another space in the building, which most recently was used as an exercise studio, remodeled so they could move the lab business in, he said.
For now, the lab business’ 13 employees are able to do their work to help pharmaceutical companies and research organizations develop new drugs, Davis said.
But that space, which totals about 3,000 square feet, is not enough room for the company long-term, Davis said. They need to find a way to finish and move into the rest of the building, he said.
Officials are looking at several options, including working with the city, Franklin College and Johnson County Development Corp. to create a space for biotechnology businesses to start up and grow, he said.
Their hope is that idea would help bring in investors, partners and other companies to help cover the cost of the needed work and give new companies and entrepreneurs a space to start and grow their businesses, Davis said.
Those small companies and entrepreneurs could lease space for a lower price, share Internet service, conference space and a collaborative environment planned for the second floor and be able to benefit from B2S Labs’ partnership with Franklin College. The company has offered internships to Franklin College students, and could broaden those to include more focus areas outside of science, such as business, based on what other companies are in the building, he said.
Davis thinks that idea could work well, since there are really no biotech companies on the southside. Building lab space is significantly more expensive than office space, and currently there is no place for startup companies and entrepreneurs in those fields to find workspace, he said.
By sharing the building with others, that would also help bring new jobs and businesses to the area, he said.
"Our big focus is to grow economic development," he said.
