Progress Corporate Park announced Wednesday the re-branding of the 204-acre park to Progress Park. This change reflects Progress Park’s desire to continue to advance and adapt to further foster growth and development within the Park. The new Progress Park logo represents a rebirth of its image, offering a modern, fresh look for one of the most successful Biotechnology parks in the country, and the only true cluster of biotech companies in Florida.
“Twenty-Five-plus years of an excellent partnership with the City of Alachua; the best is yet to come,” said Alachua Mayor Gib Coerper.
Progress Park began as the vision of one man – Dr. Robert Marston, president of the University of Florida during the early 1980s. He envisioned an office and research park where university technology projects and private start-up companies would co-locate for the mutual benefit of both. The University of Florida Foundation owned a large parcel of land in the city of Alachua and 200 of those acres were designated for the park. The park’s DRI was amended in 1999 to allow for much more diverse uses of the property, including light industrial, general office, distribution, medical, retail and hotel use, and Park development accelerated. This re-branding to Progress Park effectively leverages the Park’s talent and capabilities, and provides a strategic template for attracting new companies, researchers, facilities, and startups.
“In the last 24 months RTI Biologics acquired Pioneer Surgical, Pasteuria Bioscience was acquired for $113 million, Nanotherapeutics broke ground nearby on a 165,000-square-foot advanced drug-manufacturing facility, AxoGen moved to the NASDAQ, AGTC filed for a $70 million IPO and UF’s Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator won three first place international awards,” said Patti Breedlove, director of the Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator, “There is a rare sense of community among the companies in this park which makes it a great place to do business.”
