Haifa municipality-owned Haifa Economic Corporation plans to build a biotechnology park adjacent to Matam High-Tech Park at the southern entrance to the city. The company expects to invest $1.5 billion in the new park over five years.
The biotechnology park will be built on a 30-dunam (7.5-acre) site jointly owned by Haifa Economic Corporation and Property and Building Ltd. (TASE: PTBL). Haifa Economic Corporation intends to buy out Property and Building.
Matam was founded in 1976. IDB Holding Corp. Ltd. (TASE:IDBH) unit Bayside Land Corp. Ltd.(Gav Yam) (TASE: BYSD1), held through Property and Building owns 50.1% of the high-tech park, and Haifa Economic Corporation owns 49.9%.
Haifa is considered a focal point of Israel's biomedical industry, especially the medical device sector. IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) has a unit there that handles, among other things, healthcare. Technion Entrepreneurial Incubator Co. Ltd. (TEIC), which also supports biomedical start-ups, operates out of Matam.
Haifa Economic Corporation CEO Avi Feferkorn is in charge of the biotechnology park project.
"Globes": Is it possible to find tenants at reasonable prices for the biotech park during the current slump?
Feferkorn: "We conducted a large market survey, from which we concluded that there is sufficient demand for the biotech park. Half of biomedical start-ups are located north of Hadera.
"There is a real crisis now, so it is very cost-effective to build now, and market the biotech park in a few years, after the recovery. We have all the money we need to move forward on construction, so there is no need to raise capital or obtain loans."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 30, 2009
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