From Third Generation Science Parks to Areas of Innovation

Transcription

1 Paper for the 30 th IASP World Conference on Science and Technology Parks, 2013 From Third Generation Science Parks to Areas of Innovation PLENARY 1 Science Parks Shaping New Cities Author: Hardy R. Schmitz schmitz@wista.de WISTA MANAGEMENT GMBH, GERMANY

2 The Starting Point With the opening of the new airport BER in the south of Berlin, the now still busy airport Berlin-Tegel with its iconic terminal building will eventually be closed, leaving an area of 1210 acres (490 ha) empty. The local government of Berlin and WISTA-Management, the developers of Adlershof, both encouraged by the continuing growth and productivity of Adlershof, decided to take on the responsibility of converting the the area and to plan, build and run a new science and technology park on the site. The logic of the Adlershof model was chosen as role model for the development of Tegel, which is approximately equal in size. The seven key success factors were: Creating a science base as public anchor, developing an infrastructure for start-ups and small and medium high-tech companies, exercising due diligence when planning the campus and its industrial extensions, encouraging entrepreneurship around the key technology areas, developing relevant networks for cooperation and brand-building, creating a sense of belonging and meaning for the core settlers and, delivering public financial planning that private investors can rely on. Applying those key factors resulted in a success story for the city, with 950 companies, 15,000 employees, significant private investments and a selfsustaining employment growth rate of 5% annually in Adlershof. The Initial City Planning Phase In 2008, the state of Berlin opened the floor for the public to discuss the future of the airport Tegel. Right from the start, the idea was to design a process that allows for the creation of concepts in an open and interdisciplinary discussion, involving all relevant stakeholders. Two decision-making programs were run in parallel. Six site conferences between 2008 and 2012 gave the interested public the opportunity to make positive suggestions and voice criticisms, which triggered an exciting city-wide debate about the future of the area. Additionally, over the course of four years from 2009 till 2012, six renowned, international and interdisciplinary teams (architects / city planners / landscape architects) explored ideas on how to make the land ready for building in cooperative workshops. Those ideas were critically discussed from an array of different viewpoints and further developed with subject matter experts, involved administrative departments and stakeholders of the Berlin public. These workshops enabled us to pick up, debate and integrate different interests at an early stage. The result a robust structural concept opened up the desired opportunities for the future development of the area. The resulting draft of the masterplan was presented to the public on the 29th of August 2012 during the sixth site conference. On the 30th of April 2013, the

3 masterplan draft Masterplan TXL was officially adopted by the Berlin senate. The Organization In September 2011, Tegel Projekt GmbH was mandated by Berlin parliament and took over the managerial tasks of developing the site. The selection of WISTA-MANAGEMENT GmbH, the development and operating company of Adlershof, Germany s largest Science and Technology Park located in Berlin ( was driven by the fact that similar guiding principles will apply building up a comprehensive and internationally attractive business environment around scientific institutes and universities. In order to create a team with a strong identity and focus, WISTA- MANAGEMENT GmbH created Tegel Projekt GmbH, a 100% subsidiary. To date, the company has twelve employees and is fully operational. The management team consists of driven individuals all recruited from the private sector. The Chief Executive Director is a former McKinsey consultant with an entrepreneurial background and hands-on business angel experience. The company currently only has one client: the Berlin Senate for City Planning and Urban Development. The project will be guided by a special Steering Committee uniting all relevant governmental agencies and is presided by the Senator for City Planning and Urban Development. The intention is to transfer the whole area belonging to the city of Berlin (34%, while 66% of the area belongs to the Federal Government represented by the Federal Real Estate Management Agency BimA) into a special purpose unit, managed by Tegel Projekt GmbH. An Advisory Board, independent of the political circus, will be established, providing an international board of experts that secure an international and business view on the project. The maximum number of people working for the board is expected to be around twenty. The Political Consensus The political consensus in both government and parliament is bipartisan and key decisions have been achieved: A substantial budget has been set aside (>100 mio ) for the development, a key part of an applied university (Beuth university) with a profile-compliant focus on Urban Technologies will be located in the park and influential research and industrial players generally subscribe to the concept. But the battle is not won yet: substantial budget constraints in Berlin make it hard to win over other public proposals. The Industrial Focus Parallel to the city planning mentioned above, the Senate for Economic Development commissioned a study on potential areas of industrial and research focus in Berlin. Analysing Berlin s research and industrial strengths and taking into account its role as Germany s largest city, the analysis concluded that Tegel should focus on the subject of Urban Technologies, interdisciplinarily combining the areas Energy, Mobility, Water, Recycling, and the cross-cutting topics Materials and ICT under one interdisciplinary umbrella, creating solutions for the city of tomorrow.

4 Large stakeholders like utilities, public real estate developers and facility management companies, public transport, fire brigades, but also the large public residential developers etc. were assessed for their project potential both in terms of relevant current as well as prospective projects. The annual investments of all relevant public companies in Berlin approach 2.5 mio. With internationally renowned research institutes such as Fraunhofer, Max Planck and Helmholtz as well as several universities, Berlin has a strong research and development basis, of which the generated knowledge and innovation holds great potential for further utilization in industrial production along the supply chain of Urban Technologies. Last but not least, all fields along the spectrum of Urban Technologies are represented by large international corporates that are located in Berlin: Bombardier, Siemens, Otis, ALBA, BMW, DB, Daimler, Vattenfall, Schneider Electric to name a few, of which many are in close vicinity to Tegel. In the next four decades the world will build more urban capacity than in the previous years. 70 % of the world s population will be living on less than 3 % of the land. The demands on mobility, energy, urban utilities and resources will increase dramatically. As a result, sustainable Urban Technologies will become increasingly important the technologies needed for living in the cities of tomorrow. Internationally, the markets for Urban Technologies are huge. Cities represent a market as well as a challenge. Our planet is becoming a world of cities. Many German companies already offer powerful tailor-made solutions to cities worldwide. For example, Siemens pioneered by creating a dedicated huge business unit working on Infrastructure and cities and Deutsche Bahn is consulting cities worldwide on transportation and traffic issues. And many others have cast their eye on these markets. Germany s car manufacturers are working on interesting concepts for the city e-mobility concepts are receiving plenty of political support. The Energiewende creates interesting concepts along the supply chain of the smart grid, ranging from grid management to decentralized micro heat & power stations, integrated solar plants, offshore windfarms, geothermal solutions, large energy storage capacities etc. IT is the big enabler for many of the integrated new solutions. Open data projects, intelligent traffic telematics and management, intelligent billing systems, e-mobility and car-sharing systems are just a few examples. Berlin is the ideal place to focus on many of these technologies. In terms of research, Berlin has a good set of cards in urban technologies as well. The Technical University of Berlin certainly takes the lead. But also the Applied Universities like Beuth-Hochschule and HTW concentrate many of their efforts to this area. In addition, the non-university institutes like Fraunhofer Society, Helmholtz Society and Leibniz-Society have strong institutes in this realm. European Initiative like the Climate KIC and the IT KIC bring further impulses. To date, the mostly interdisciplinary subject of Urban Technologies has not

5 been politically designated to be one of the key competence areas of Berlin, but the team is making working hard to raise the subject on the public and political priority list. Start-ups are important for this strategy, too. In the last few years, Berlin has become a major hub for start-ups in Europe, with more than Internet companies founded in the past five years. Its extraordinary non-conformist and liberal lifestyle, the vast cultural and educational environment and relatively low cost of living has contributed to making Berlin highly attractive for mostly young talent. Initially the web-based business models have been dominant, but the hightech foundations are gaining more and more support in recent years. Pre-Seed incubators have been installed in almost all of the universities of Berlin. But in Adlershof as well as very close to Tegel, incubation and technology centers are in full operation and will be extended. Currently, no metropolitan area in Germany has established a similar focus. The strategy will have to combine all of the aforementioned strengths, making Berlin and Tegel the central point for Urban Technologies and creating the relevance needed to attract investments, talent and companies. The Strategy The masterplan in its present shape takes all this into account: There will be a compact center, housing the old,yet charismatic airport building and its adjacent units, preserving some of the international atmosphere an airport has at heart. The central roundabout with its looping street will continue to be the core of the area. Around this, high quality buildings of further research institutes, universities and research oriented large companies will find and add to an interdisciplinary ecosystem. In the east of this campus-type center the area will feature a square surrounded by high quality multi-story buildings. Shops and restaurants and all other amenities a science and business campus requires will find their home here. Around the central area (see picture 9; orange area), the masterplan envisions areas for predominantly high-tech-companies (dark blue area). To the west, we provide plots of a multiple of 3000m2 per unit. This reflects the nature of the industry structure of Berlin: mid-size, but highly specialized companies. To the east, we provide space for larger units. In the north, where the old landing strips are located, we set aside 200 acres (80 ha) of space for largescale production and testing grounds (light blue area). North of that, a huge park will create a recreation zone (green area). An existing residential area is likely to be expanded and an existing hotel will most likely transform into student halls. Green zones and existing trees will largely be protected. Attracting academic excellence will be a long term project. Having the Beuth- Hochschule in Tegel will only be a first but very valuable step to establish

6 credibility. The availability of labs, workshops and open air testing grounds as part of a living lab concept are promising to be attractive for technical research projects. The development team, however, will need full political support to win more public academic and research institutes. The field of urban/metropolitan solutions, though, is rapidly growing. Many universities from all over the world establish units focusing on the subject. Tegel Projekt GmbH intends to find academic helmsmen/women to win presence in the relevant circles. Currently there is a permanent dialogue with the Technical University in Berlin and the Fraunhofer Society, which has established a research network called Morgenstadt (The city of tomorrow). The planned Berlin Fire and Rescue Academy may be an interesting addition to the bouquet of actors. Already interesting joint research projects between Beuth-Hochschule and the Berlin Fire Brigade, for instance, are working on In-building-location of firemen, new solutions for fire extinction of Lithium- Ion Batteries and Solar Panels. Creating dense vicinity of research, education and business is the key component of the development strategy. A compact center for the Beuth- University in the old airport building will create the public anchor. 1,700 students will mark the beginning of the academic cluster. The University s Incubation unit will contribute to the young company scene. The university will concentrate all units touching the area of Urban Technologies at Tegel. Student halls, labs, library, sporting units, canteen and student housing will support initial activities. Around the old terminal building we will reserve space for more academic and research institutions. Terminal D, which is directly connected to the old hexagonally shaped terminal building, will become the Base Camp. It will be refurbished in an informal and open manner to attract the first companies. Of course, the development agency, Tegel Projekt GmbH, the facility management unit and a little event management unit will be based here. Both offices and meeting rooms can be realised here, as well as workshops and labs. The nearby garage-type buildings, now housing catering units, freight operations, duty activities and workshops, will be renovated in an interim style and let to SMEs for very low rent. In immediate vicinity, the first streets will be built allowing for settlements of relatively small companies seeking easy contact to the university. Testing grounds for new vehicles, wind turbines etc. will be located north of the hangars, allowing new technologies to be tested and demonstrated. The hangars could also be repurposed for experimentational activities in some sort of demonstratorium. Encouraging young entrepreneurs and start-ups to come to Tegel for its special environment is another building block of the strategy. Tegel Projekt will establish a specialized incubator focusing on Urban Technologies. A network of Business Angels and technological coaches for the early development phase will be part of the Urban Tech Republic.

7 Branding the campus will be important from day one. Tegel to date is a legend of an airport and a powerful brand itself; a fact that we used for our marketing concept. Though located close to the city center it will be relatively isolated for the first couple of years. The first settlers will be pioneers. Creating a Republic was a logical conclusion, implying things like: a constitution, regular town-hall type meetings, special events, welcome cult, some ubiquitous logos, code of open conduct. The republic intends to become the place for people interested in Urban Technologies to meet. We will try to create permanent showcases, seminar formats etc. Creating a network with other campuses around the world focusing on Urban Technologies will be a natural step. Business plan competition, finding and binding specialized venture capitalists is part of the focus strategy. Financing all this is a long term project. Budget restrictions are tight these days. The political will to create a long term growth project is documented by parliamentary decisions to relocate the Beuth-Hochschule, to refurbish the old terminal buildings and adjacent buidings, to have a development agency and to build the necessary infrastructure and streets. GRW funds (90% subsidies funded by federal and local government) are very helpful to make long term infrastructural developments. Over the next twenty years we estimate public investments in the order of magnitude of 400 mio.however, this includes the university, the fire academy and appr. 15,000 m² of incubation area. The comparison with Adlershof will be a good way to illustrate the economical effects of investments of this type: Income tax amounts to over 200 mio alone. The value added of Adlershof is exceeding 2,000 mio annually and the employment effect for the region amounts to 30,000 employees (of which 15,000 are directly employed in Adlershof). Public investment in Adlershof amounted to appr. 1,400 mio in the last 22 years. So the public anchor investments were indispensable, in the last five years, however, the share of private investments amounted to 70% of total investments of more than 120 mio annually. Gaining public trust and interest is important for such a large and long term project. From the start the early decisions leading to the general usage plan and the focus on Urban Technologies were publicly discussed and debated. Acceptance was gained through regular public discussions and a broad involvement in workshops, discussions and regular updates to the interested public. The press coverage was highly satisfactory on the local and national level. With the plans for all different aspects such as transportation, energy, water, street design, detailed city planning, creating building rights, vicinity of residential/industrial plots, historical protection of existing buildings etc. progressing, we plan to continue the process by involving specialists and the public in regular public meetings ( Urban Tech Talks ). Doing so, we aim to create trust in the process and create awareness, because most of these topics represent a discourse on Urban Technologies. Leading consulting companies and industrial companies will be involved.

8 Selling the Urban Tech Republic can work along the classical lines. The market for the key players is transparent. First contacts can be established using the Hannover Trade Fair and related Trade Shows and Congresses. Participation in large real estate trade shows like EXPOREAL and MIPIM have already started. At a later stage, we will be present in the largest urban technology trade shows together the key urban tech companies in Brlin. Finding own trade fair concepts for Berlin will be a topic for the Trade Fair organization, Messe Berlin GmbH. However, Germany is not the classical place to establish large-scale production in mature industries. In growing markets we are targeting, however, where knowledgedrives the competitive advantage we hope to convince large international companies to invest in both R&D-units and first lead-fabs. Being involved early in understanding key development projects of these companies is helping a lot convincing investors to settle in Tegel. The scientific partners in the institutes of public research and universities of Berlin are an important tool for this. Furthermore we plan to establish an Urban Technologies Network, enhancing the cooperation and the transparency of this field. This is a support scheme created by the local government to discover and activate potential partnerships in the region. Who does what and with whom? is an important question when finding the way through large corporates organizational jungle. Ideally we would like to gain cooperation of all public and private infrastructure utilities in Berlin and their industrial partners to start a permanent exhibition in Tegel. Currently, we create the full overview of all current Urban Technologies projects these organisations are working on. The first results are very promising showcases. The Scenario is Convincing 15 minutes from the federal government offices, embedded in Berlin s rich scientific landscape and surrounded by large forests and potential public parks, Tegel Projekt develops Germany s most comprehensive Science and Technology Park focused on Urban Technologies. An area of 490 ha will create a highly productive environment for students, researchers, industrial und real estate investors. We expect to collect 15,000 employees, 5,000 students and 800 companies by The systematic creation of an internationally competitive campus with high scientific caliber, close cooperation of companies, research institutions, a productive incubation space for startups focusing on Urban Technologies will give the launching base for a new research - industrial lighthouse in Berlin.