Cincinnati Children’s is planning to open a new research facility in the Uptown Innovation District.
The health system recently bought the six-story office building at 3090 Exploration Ave., according to a Monday announcement.
Children’s will use two floors to house more than 200 current researchers doing non-laboratory work. The rest of the space will be rented out to other organizations.
Significant funding for the purchase came from private economic development group Jobs Ohio, which provided Children’s with a $32-million, low-interest loan.
Jobs Ohio Managing Director of Health Care Tyler Allchin says he hopes space in the new research facility will attract local and national businesses to the Innovation District.
“Companies that are close to both research and talent thrive,” Allchin said. “In today's market where both of those are either expensive or time-consuming or in short supply — specifically on the talent piece of it — the closer that you can get to the source, the more success you're going to have as an employer.”
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3090 Exploration Ave. is a recent construction, built in 2022. Allchin said it was vacant until Children’s acquisition.
Children’s new building is next to the University of Cincinnati’s Digital Futures.
“When we've got an opportunity to add a clinical partner — and one not just that's great on the care for kids in general, but on the research side of things, one of the nation's top federally funded research institutions — if we can add their teammates and their research enterprise alongside the university’s, we've got a mix for something special,” Allchin said.
As part of its agreement with Jobs Ohio, Children’s has committed to create 100 new research jobs with a payroll of at least $10 million. It also will do more research that is supported by federal funding.
Children’s researchers will move into the new space after interior construction is finished. It is expected to take close to a year.