Georgia officials map out Atlanta R&D complex

Economic development officials in Georgia are hoping to trigger something of a biotech boom in southwest Atlanta with the creation of a 170-acre research park in the redeveloped Fort McPherson. The park could be anchored by a research center and marketed as an R&D complex for "vaccine development, regenerative medicine, cardiovascular research, and neuroscience," according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle. And a fully developed complex could lure 7,000 biotech jobs.

It won't come cheap, though. The research park could cost $168 million to build, once the military shuts down its work at Fort McPherson and hands the grounds over to developers. But combined with a planned 100-acre bioscience corridor in downtown Atlanta, economic development officials say they will be able to make this leading Southern city into a thriving biotech hub.

"When we look at what we're doing here versus what some other states are doing, and we ask what do they have that we don't have," says Mike Cassidy, head of the Georgia Research Alliance, "a research park is at the top of the list."

- here's the story from the Atlanta Business Chronicle