Miami University is moving forward on plans to transform a dilapidated three-story building in uptown Oxford into an entrepreneurial center that has the potential to reinvigorate the city's business corridor.
The university has sent out a request for qualifications seeking a design-build firm to lead its College@Elm incubator project. Valued at $10.8 million, the project aims to breathe new life into the vacant 20 S. Elm St. building, turning it into a 39,000-square-foot hub for innovation, workforce development, manufacturing and startups.
"The Elm Street Building is an existing facility that is currently underutilized," according to the RFQ released April 23. "Its large volumes, easily accessible loading docks, industrial sized elevator and community adjacent location make it a prime candidate for a manufacturing innovation incubator."
College@Elm will anchor a budding three-block innovation corridor in Oxford that now includes a community arts center and green space. It should attract students, spur at least three new startups each year and create 74 high-tech jobs generating about $4 million in annual payroll.
It will have three users initially: Miami, providing space for product innovation; Fairfield-based The Fischer Group, a manufacturing and consumer goods company; and the city, which will facilitate opportunities for local collaboration and economic development.
It will also leverage Miami's "Pull" approach — a technology commercialization strategy developed with the Wright Brothers Institute that will connect local entrepreneurs with idle intellectual property.
"We think we can create a model that can be replicable across Ohio," Randi Thomas, vice president of ASPIRE at Miami, told me previously. "Our secret sauce will be how to engage 18- to 21-year-olds in the entrepreneurial ecosystem as quickly as possible with ideas that we might not come up with."
Miami has owned the Elm Street building since 1933 when it was built. For 68 years, it housed the university's foodservice operation. But for the last two decades, the building has been vacant, and now requires significant repairs.
Renovations will include new electrical, mechanical, plumbing and fire protection systems. Offices and instructional spaces will be outfitted in alignment with contemporary business environments, and large portions of the building will be furnished with minimal elements and flexible features to accommodate tenant turnover.
The estimated total construction cost is $8.6 million.
Miami's tentative schedule for selecting a design-builder is to issue a request for proposals to short-listed firms on May 26, have interviews by June 18, and select a firm by June 25.
Preconstruction services are anticipated to start in June, with construction stage notice to proceed anticipated for December 2021. Substantial completion of work would be December 2022, with design-build services completed in December 2023.
Responses to the RFQ are due by 2 p.m. May 12. For information, click here.
