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PRESIDENT/CEO ANNOUNCED FOR NEW INCUBATOR
Construction under way of 40,000-square-foot green facility.
ST. LOUIS, February 11, 1999 — Dr. Robert J. Calcaterra has been
named president and chief executive officer of Nidus Center for Scientific
Enterprise, the $8.5 million, 40,000-square-foot business incubator
currently under construction in Creve Coeur.
When it opens its doors, Nidus Center will serve entrepreneur clients
who are refining and preparing new technologies for market – with
a focus on plant science technologies. Nidus Center is part of the investment
Monsanto and others have made to help promote the St. Louis region as
a world center in biotechnology and the plant sciences. The facility
– expected to open in fall 1999 – will be located near the
intersection of Olive Boulevard and Warson Road, within walking distance
of the land sited for the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.
"Nidus Center is fast becoming a reality, and I’m excited
to be a part of this opportunity," Calcaterra said. "Of the
incubators with which I’m familiar or have been directly involved,
this one is certainly unique. In my experience, there has never been
an incubator which – before its doors are even opened – enjoys
so many advantages critical to the success of any incubator."
Calcaterra has 10 years experience in incubator management. Most recently,
he was the president and chief executive officer of the Arizona Technology
Incubator (ATI), which he founded in 1992. During his tenure, ATI brought
$50 million and 250 new jobs to the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. Calcaterra
also founded the Boulder (Colorado) Technology Incubator in 1989. Calcaterra
began his career in 1965 as a research engineer for Monsanto.
Calcaterra said Nidus Center will support start-up entrepreneurs by
providing support services, technical and business advice and reasonably
priced office and laboratory facilities for the commercialization of
promising new ideas. When up and running, Nidus Center is expected to
accommodate 15-20 client entrepreneurs.
The facility will include 20,000 square feet of wet and dry laboratories
and associated offices, 9,000 square feet of offices for entrepreneurs,
a reception area, meeting rooms and 11,000 square feet of mechanical
space and building services. St. Louis firms HOK, William Tao Associates,
EDM and Paric Corporation will provide the incubator’s architecture,
engineering design and construction. Another firm, Grant Cooper &
Associates, already has provided significant assistance in recruiting
leadership for Nidus Center.
A task force from Monsanto, Washington University, the University of
Missouri-Columbia and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
studied successful business incubators around the country and Europe
to design Nidus Center. One goal of that design is to have the facility
designated a "Green Building" by the U.S. Green Building Council.
"Green Buildings" must meet stringent environmental and energy
criteria, including requirements regulating indoor air quality, water
conservation management, environmental impact and construction waste
management, among others.
If this designation takes place, the incubator would become Missouri’s
first certified "Green Building" and one of the first "Green"
laboratories in the country, according to David Broughton, director
of Strategic Initiatives at Monsanto.
As construction continues over the next several months, Calcaterra
will hire a support staff, develop Nidus Center’s service network
of business consultants and begin to reach out into the investment community.
In addition, a board of directors and advisory council will be appointed
to provide long-term direction for the incubator
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