To bolster its life science sector, New York City should focus on start-up companies, real estate developer Joel Marcus tells the Financial Times.
Marcus, FT adds, is the chair and co-founder of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, which builds and owns life-science buildings, including the Alexandria Center for Life Science on New York's East Side. But he tells FT that while New York has the medical and life science resources, he says the city is too expensive for larger firms and should concentrate on incubating smaller firms that then may expand elsewhere. "You can't really scale a company in substantial fashion here in New York like you can in other locations," Marcus tells it.
It notes that Marcus's comments come as New York Mayor Eric Adams touts the life science sector as a means of growth and jobs for the city as it rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic.
FT adds that Orin Herskowitz, the executive director of Columbia Technology Ventures, disagrees, and instead says that New York is catching up to other life science hubs.