Location, Location, Location: Life Sciences Park

Surrounded by woodlands and “technology corridor” neighbors that include Hughes Network Systems, the Department of Energy, and numerous bioscience and technology companies, the Hercules Pinkney Life Sciences Park at the Germantown Campus already comprises more than 25 business tenants in three facilities: Holy Cross Germantown Hospital; the new Bioscience Education Center (opened in fall 2014); and the Germantown Innovation Center within the Paul Peck Academic and Innovation Building. In addition to those existing facilities, the campus has 27 acres for companies to build to suit.

“This isn’t something we can build overnight,” says Martha Schoonmaker, executive director of the Life Sciences Park, “but we definitely see it as a long-term investment that will benefit the College, the county, and the region.”

Schoonmaker, hired last summer, manages the park on behalf of the College, which includes overseeing contracts, leases, and partnerships with tenants. She is charged with developing corporate and trade association partnerships that will further park development, and expand internships, learning, and career opportunities for students.

Previously, Schoonmaker was director of business development and investment for Prince William County Department of Economic Development in Northern Virginia. During her tenure, she spearheaded the development of the Prince William County Science Accelerator, a $4.3 million public/private investment of a 9,000-square-foot wet lab. She also had a hand in developing 3,600 new jobs as business development manager for the Prince William Department of Economic Development. In Georgia, she spent 13 years with the Enterprise Innovation Institute at Georgia Institute of Technology.

One thing Schoonmaker counts as a plus against competing sites is that it meets the number-one criterion in company location searches: availability of a highly skilled workforce.

“Montgomery College has the corner on that,” says Schoonmaker. “What better place for a company to be than right on the college campus that is producing its employees, and with the ability to interact with and influence what they are learning?” She gives the example of companies having students come in and work on sampling DNA in the mock GMP (good manufacturing practice) lab. Entrepreneurs would benefit, too, she says, by being able to speed new science into the classrooms. The students receive advance, market-ready knowledge and skills.

Schoonmaker spends very little time in her office in the Paul Peck Academic and Innovation Building. In her first six months on the job, she reached out to state and local economic development allies, existing businesses in Montgomery County, as well as other national and international science and technology companies. She traveled to India last fall with a Montgomery County contingent intent on selling Maryland to India’s business leaders and higher education institutions.

“Within ten days,” she says, “we traveled to six different cities in India, met with well over 200 business, community, political, and academic leaders, and blanketed the country with Hercules Pinkney Life Sciences Park brochures. At the end of the day, we all want economic development to improve each of our community’s ability to provide jobs for citizens and raise the standard of living.”

Through collaboration with business partners—at home and abroad—the College is positioning itself to become a national demonstration model, as well as gain momentum in creating a continuum of bioscience and technology education and training from middle school to postdoctoral levels. The goal is to strengthen opportunities for all parties involved: the College, the county, the corporations, and the community.