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The next life sciences hub? What the Texas Research Quarter means for Plano

The bid for Plano as another Boston and San Francisco rests in Perot’s empty EDS headquarters. What will its future look like?

When people think of industry in North Texas, they think of oil and gas. They think of real estate.

They think of cattle and the Fort Worth Stockyards, said Gabby Everett, director of business operations and strategy at BioLabs Pegasus Park.

“They don’t think pipettes and white lab coats,” she said.

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The Texas Research Quarter is betting on changing that. A project by Dallas-based investment strategy company NexPoint is a 4 million-square-foot development slated to host labs and manufacturing space for life sciences companies in Plano’s Legacy neighborhood.

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The 135-acre district includes the former Electronic Data Systems campus, H. Ross Perot Sr.’s information technology company founded in the 1960s.

In August, the Plano City Council approved a development agreement to support the project with funds from a tax increment reinvestment zone. The council approved up to $15 million to reimburse NexPoint for the redevelopment.

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Plano’s economic development director, Doug McDonald, called the project — a $4 billion redevelopment of the campus and surrounding sites — a “game-changer” for the city.

“Life sciences and biotech is the next generation that we want to be a part of,” he said.

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Still, the project will require additional rezoning and real estate deals to be fully realized.

The first phase will see redevelopment and new construction with support from the city’s reimbursement. The finished product will include retail and manufacturing space as well as housing.

Some see an opportunity to create a hub in Plano for a budding industry, a change that could create jobs and alter the city’s identity in the region. While the coasts have historically held the country’s life sciences hubs in San Francisco and Boston, North Texas could be the next frontier, and Plano could be its anchor, proponents say.

‘A place to land’

Kristen Doyle sees an opportunity for the city and the region. Doyle is the CEO of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, a state agency that funds cancer research at academic institutions and companies.

Work done at Texas institutions like UT Southwestern Medical Center “desperately needs this place to be launching,” Doyle said. “There’s going to be more North Texas companies coming out. They need to have a place to land.”

Kelly Cloud, the vice president for economic development of life sciences at the Dallas Regional Chamber, works with companies looking to relocate or expand in North Texas.

Cloud said the big space and manufacturing facility infrastructure the Texas Research Quarter hopes to provide is missing from the region.

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Companies are leaving North Texas to manufacture elsewhere. For example, Plano-based Reata Pharmaceuticals no longer has a physical presence in Texas after it was acquired by the company BioGen.

“We have to have more of those facilities that [companies] can land and grow in,” Cloud said. “Plano is a great opportunity for that.”

CPRIT requires all grant awardees to be located in or relocate to Texas. Plano, Doyle said, could be an option for relocating cancer research companies to find their home. She said most CPRIT-funded companies are in Houston.

“Having an anchor like the Texas Research Quarter in Plano helps keep them in Texas,” Doyle said.

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Companies at the center could use funds on lab work and clinical trials rather than on building their own lab, an especially important option for startups, said Lauren Tyra, CEO of Gregor Diagnostics, a company developing a screening test for prostate cancer.

The center would also allow for collaboration in “shared space,” a community and an ecosystem for science and research, Doyle said.

A rendering of  The Texas Research Quarter, a new life sciences and medical center that will...
A rendering of The Texas Research Quarter, a new life sciences and medical center that will occupy a 91-acre campus once home to H. Ross Perot Sr. s Electronic Data Systems.(Courtesy of NexPoint)

Pegasus Park’s ‘proving point’

Many point to the success of BioLabs Pegasus Park as an example of what North Texas could become for biotech and life sciences.

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Everett is the site head of the BioLabs Pegasus Park in North Texas.

The 37,000-square-foot coworking lab and office space in Dallas for companies, researchers and investors in life sciences took off, Everett said, hitting its six-year occupancy goal in under three years. Everett said their space, which opened in 2022, is now 90% occupied. Cloud calls the site a “proving point.”

“It really kind of gives an indicator to the appetite for biotech in this region — not just to support its own growth and support its own spin-outs, but to attract companies from other places,” Everett said.

The Perryman Group found that life sciences have experienced significant growth in Texas.

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A report by the economic analysis firm found that the industry contributes $41.4 billion in gross product and about 319,150 jobs in Texas. By 2050, the financial benefits of the industry are projected to reach almost $75.7 billion in gross product and 582,700 jobs.

While BioLabs provides a launching pad for smaller companies, Everett said, they need a place to expand.

“If we don’t have that larger step-up of corporate-level lab space here in North Texas, we’re going to lose our companies to the coasts anyway,” Everett said. “That’s where Plano comes in, and that’s why that development is so exciting.”

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What the dream needs to succeed

Boston and the Bay area, Tyra said, have the healthcare and life sciences funds writing big checks. North Texas, on the other hand, could use more.

“As this industry develops in our area, we need more funds, and we need to do a better job of attracting investor capital from the coasts,” Tyra said.

It’s not a cheap investment. Doyle said it currently takes more than a billion dollars and usually 10-15 years to get a successful cancer drug from phase one clinical trials to the pharmacy shelves.

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“CPRIT’s money is important, and it’s a lot to a very small company, but it is a drop in the bucket in terms of what is needed to get a terrific idea all the way to market,” Doyle said. “There needs to be a lot of other investors that are continuing to invest in that company.”

NexPoint expects to spend nearly $136 million on the work at the site, which is expected to create more than 2,000 jobs in the first phase, according to previous reporting. The finished development could generate more than 30,000 jobs.

Eric Danielson, managing director and head of real estate development at NexPoint, said the Texas Research Quarter needs tenants and the right workforce to succeed.

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Developing that workforce is already underway. A nearly $9 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration awarded to Dallas College aims to grow the biotech workforce in North Texas through partnerships with colleges and employers in the region.

“These are the jobs, and these are the employers that [Plano] students hopefully will ultimately enter the workforce through,” Danielson said.

Everett thinks attracting clinical research organizations, contract drug manufacturing organizations and large pharmaceutical companies to the district would help validate the industry’s presence in North Texas.

“That large pharma presence is the one key piece that North Texas is missing,” Everett said. “But large pharma isn’t going to move into a region if the workforce isn’t there. They’re not going to move into a region if the facility isn’t there.”

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Another critical need for life science companies is the support services that help a business succeed, Doyle said. It can’t all fall to the Texas Research Quarter.

“Life science … is very ecosystem driven,” Cloud said. “It takes a lot of different people, a lot of different skill sets, different perceptions, different visions to really have an impact on healthcare for all. If we’re going to do it right, it’s going to have to be a community effort.”

Why Plano?

North Texas is an economic beacon, home to 30% of the state’s GDP, according to the North Texas Commission. If it were its own state, it would have the ninth-highest GDP in the country.

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Plano has been a part of this thriving economy, hosting the headquarters of companies like Bank of America and PepsiCo. For the city’s next chapter, Danielson believes the future is in new industry sectors like life sciences.

Cloud sees the Texas Research Quarter as a way to make use of what the city already has.

“This is a great opportunity for an economic driver in a space that’s already there, that’s not being utilized,” Cloud said. “It’s maximizing the use of that space, and not just from a physical standpoint, but from the economic development standpoint.”

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The region is set up well to support the industry, Doyle said. It has scientific and medical communities at several large universities and hospital systems. It has a large and diverse patient base for clinical trials. It has airports, comparatively affordable costs of living, a business-friendly environment and relatively high standards for quality of life.

In the middle of the country, North Texas also provides connectivity for companies pulled to the country’s coasts.

Many life sciences companies, including Verily, Google’s life sciences sister, have already made the move. Caris Life Sciences in Irving, Lantern Pharma in Dallas and DAVA Oncology and Orano Med in Plano have also made their bid on North Texas.

Ultimately, the vision for the Texas Research Quarter is a space that will propel Plano as a new name in life sciences, the “physical place where cancer gets cured,” Danielson said.

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For Doyle, the project hits close to home. Her family lived in Plano, and she graduated from Plano Senior High School in 1990. Doyle was a partner at an Austin-based law firm before she joined CPRIT in 2009. As a cancer survivor, she was diagnosed in 2005 and has seen what it takes to try to cure cancer.

“A cancer cure does not come overnight,” Doyle said. “It takes years and years and years and many, many, many, many scientists and patients to develop the treatment protocols that will eventually save someone’s life, saved my life.”

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