How Fitzsimons Innovation Community checks all the boxes

By: Fitzsimons Innovation Community

When choosing an innovation community for your life sciences organization, the list of factors to evaluate can be overwhelming. You’re likely looking for the cutting edge when it comes to lab and office space, but you want easy access to amenities that make the time off work great, too. The list of things you need to assess is long and you don’t want to risk making the wrong decision for something this important. At Fitzsimons Innovation Community, we know we have the perfect space for your life sciences company employees to live, work, and play. And if we don’t already have the perfect spot, we have the space and custom options available to build it for you.

Let’s look at a typical list a site selector would have in mind when evaluating a future innovation community for their organization. Here are the common must-haves:

• Community stability and life sciences expertise
• Top-notch facilities
• Work-live-play amenities
• Proximity to academic and/or research campuses
• A city with life sciences industry depth
• A strong economy and business-friendly environment at the city, region, and state levels
• Access to capital and a strong talent pool

So does Fitzsimons Innovation Community measure up in all these categories? We’re excited to tell you that we definitely do. Here’s how:

Community Stability and Life Sciences Expertise ✅  

When it comes to community stability, not only has Fitzsimons Innovation Community been around for more than 20 years, but we also have a list of success stories to back us up. With more than 80 organizations thriving on our campus, more than 800 people employed, 50-plus acres available for development, and a leadership team with decades of experience in successful life sciences growth, we know what it takes to prosper in this industry and what a Community needs to help you make your success happen.

Leading-Edge Facilities ✅

You’re the expert in the tools you need to research, discover, and grow; we’re the experts in making sure you have them. Whether you choose one of our existing lab and office spaces or take advantage of more than 427,000 square feet of customizable space in the five buildings in our Community (so far), you’ll be working in a facility that has exactly what you need, but that also provides collaboration and shared amenities.

Work Here. Live Here. Play Here. ✅

Fitzsimons Innovation Community was built with lifestyle in mind, not just workdays. The ease and convenience of having luxury residences on campus, plus top schools, outdoor recreation space, and urban social scene nearby mean the people who work here don’t need to sit in their cars for hours each day.

Nearby Academic Partners and Industry Depth ✅

When we say nearby, we mean the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is right across the street. More than two million patients visit this campus each year, and there are 4,500-plus health professionals seeking a degree. Our Community members are in regular collaboration, idea exchange, and conversation with the experts who work at the university and its surrounding hospitals, and a portion of the millions in research funding that these institutions receive often makes its way over to our campus. There is real value to a working scientist being able to have a beer at the brewery on campus with a physician who has done extensive work in their field. That happens here all the time.

Proximity to one of the top academic institutions in the country is only part of the reason our Community is growing like it is. There are so many other local industry investments that our organizations are taking advantage of:

• $50M CU Anschutz Acceleration Initiative for cutting-edge healthcare innovations
• $200M Gates Institute investment in cell and gene therapy
• $125M CU Healthcare Innovation Fund
• $300M+ Total cell and gene therapy Community investment

Colorado, Denver, Aurora: A Healthcare Mecca with a Strong Economy ✅

Fitzsimons Innovation Community is located in Aurora, the third-largest city in Colorado, and a booming part of the Denver Metro Area. With healthcare as the second largest employment sector in town and a 5.3% growth rate of professional, scientific, and technical jobs, the talent pool just keeps getting better.

At the state level, Colorado is ranked number one for talent by CNBC and in the top 25 globally for talent concentration. With top industries that include advanced manufacturing, aerospace, bioscience, engineering, and technology and information, the overall population is highly educated and driven toward discovery. And they have the funds to make those discoveries, too, with the state’s life sciences community raising $1.6 billion in 2022, topping $1 billion for the sixth year.

In previous blog posts, we talked about Colorado and the Denver Metro Area as great places to live with the ski resorts, sunny weather, and desirable culture, but Fitzsimons Innovation Community takes those lifestyle amenities and back them up with investments, facilities, and collaboration opportunities that allow the organizations on our campus to grow beyond what they ever thought possible. We started with the intention of delivering everything our member companies would need to succeed, and now reality matches the vision, checking all of those boxes. ✅

In the coming weeks, Fitzsimons Innovation Community will be releasing a white paper about choosing an innovation community. It’s a compilation of insight and data from thought leaders and experts, and we think it will be an invaluable tool for those evaluating sites for their life sciences organizations, whether here at Fitzsimons or across the country. Details will be coming soon!