The Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute has taken additional steps to pursue development of a new $6 million wet-lab facility here.


At meetings this month, SIRTIs board pledged up to $250,000 to be used to operate the facility in its first three years, and the board of a separate entity, called the SIRTI Foundation, arranged to buy property for the structure and take out a $2.2 million loan to build it.


SIRTI is still awaiting word on a request for a $3 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to build the wet-lab facility. If SIRTI secures that funding, the foundation would provide matching funds by spending about $800,000 on a 78,000-square foot piece of land in the Riverpoint Higher Education Park, and by seeking a $2.2 million loan, says Patrick Tam, SIRTIs executive director. The Washington State University Foundation preliminarily has agreed to sell the SIRTI Foundation that land, which is at the southeast corner of a block thats east of Pine Street and south of Main Avenue near the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. line, Tam says.


SIRTIs action this month is important because it shows that SIRTI is fully behind this project, he says. Its very much in line with SIRTIs mission to develop technology-based companies in the Inland Northwest.


The two foundations havent engaged in negotiations yet over the price of the land, but Tam expects the price to be near that $800,000 estimate.


Tom Quigley, a member of the WSU Foundations board, confirmed that groups intention to sell the land, which is vacant now.


Now that SIRTI is moving ahead, WSUs step is to arrive at a configuration (of the site), document the transaction between the two parties, and then make the transfers, he says. That should occur over the next several months.


Because SIRTI is a state agency, it isnt able to take out loans, Tam says. The SIRTI Foundation, however, is a nonprofit entity, and is able to borrow money, so the two entities agreed to allow the foundation to act as the developer of the wet labs. SIRTI would then lease the buildings entire 32,000 square feet of floor space, then sublease wet laboratories to companies for their use.


Tam says the SIRTI Foundation would pay off the loan with the income from SIRTIs leases of the wet-lab space. An undisclosed bank has said its interested in loaning the $2.2 million the foundation needs, he says. When asked how the loan would be guaranteed, Tam said only that right now the loan is not totally firm; it has some moving parts.


Tam says SIRTI hasnt decided what it would charge companies to lease the space, but rates would be comparable to what is charged for such space in the Puget Sound region.


He says its difficult to compare fees charged for renting wet labs here since there are so few and they are in such high demand.


SIRTI charges anywhere from $15 to $35 a square foot for wet-lab space in its building that it leases out now.


Tam says several companies, all of them locally based, have expressed interest in leasing space at the proposed facility, but he declines to name them or to say whether they are startups or established businesses.


Wet labsusually defined as having sinks, a deionized water supply, ventilation hoods, and other specialized componentsare used by biotechnology and biomedical companies to conduct research and develop new products. The Spokane-Coeur dAlene areas scarce wet-lab facilities, which include 2,000 square feet of such space at SIRTIs building, 5,000 square feet at the University of Idaho Research Park in Post Falls, and 11,000 square feet in the Health Sciences Building at Riverpoint, are being used either by companies or for academic pursuits.


The facility proposed by SIRTI would have 12,000 square feet of wet-lab space, 10,000 square feet of office space, and 10,000 square feet of other lab space that could be converted to wet laboratories in the future.


In March, the EDA invited SIRTI to apply for a grant, and SIRTI submitted a proposal last month. Although the competition for such funds for is fierce, SIRTI has a good shot at the money, Tam says.


They havent committed the funds, but they have indicated to us that our project is most likely in line for fiscal year 2004 funding, Tam says.


Word on that decision could come within the next several weeks. If SIRTI wins the grant, the money could come any time after the federal governments next fiscal year begins in October.


If things really move well, if were funded in December, we could break ground in April, Tam says. Were hoping to construct over the summer and have the building ready by late fall of 2004.


Like Tam, Spokane Mayor John Powers says he is optimistic that the project will come to fruition.


I think its a natural fit here, he says. I think weve positioned ourselves well, and its a community-supported project. Its a cornerstone of the conversion of the Riverpoint (Higher Education Park) into a true university district.