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Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?

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by Andrew Tellijohn
May-June 2019

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Back Page – Interview with Diane Rucker

St. Paul-based University Enterprise Laboratories opened in 2005 with 125,000 square feet of space and 21 wet labs for life science companies.

It was founded as an incubator for new businesses and for the last 15 years it’s been nearly full.

In May, UEL opened the doors on a $6.4 million, 19,000 square foot expansion that opens the doors for new growing businesses and enhances the organization’s reach. Diane Rucker, executive director, joined Andrew Tellijohn, Upsize managing editor, to discuss the transition. The conversation has been edited for length.

Tellijohn:  What does the expansion mean for UEL and its tenants, current and future?

Rucker:  UEL has been about 125,000 square feet, primarily lab space with some office and dry labs as well. We’ve also been 95 to 98 percent occupied for the last four years or so. It opens up the question of how do we serve this market a little bit better, are we serving the right market and who needs us the most.

The expansion was designed with that in mind. We added 12 new wet labs, six dry labs, some additional conference and office space and expanded our office area.

UEL primarily serves early stage and growth companies that are coming to us with needs for lab space, office space and connections within the community. The key difference is not only serving the market we need even better but focusing even more on the early-stage companies and trying to enable the types of connections they need.

Tellijohn:  Is the focus the same?

Rucker:  That will expand a little bit. When UEL was envisioned it was life sciences which steers us toward bio-tech and pharma. We also have some companies that are working on medical health or med-device work. We have a couple that are focused on food and agriculture. And then a couple focused on materials engineering.

There also is an interesting crossover when you see the analytics side of things being equally important to the science and tech focused companies. So, we have expanded our IT infrastructure to try to work with that. Analytics started out as its own separate entity. Now, there is such as extraordinary amount of data that any business, small medium or large, can benefit from using it.

Tellijohn: What’s the status of leasing?

Rucker: We have about 75 percent leased with several other companies talking with us. Moving some companies around opened up a couple spaces in the original building, so overall occupancy is around 75 percent.

To talk about leasing, people can get in touch with me. Earlier would be better, so we can work with them on what is the right space rather than what is left.

Tellijohn: How can organizations like UEL help create opportunities for start-ups and expanding small businesses?

Rucker: Groups like UEL can really forge connections between small businesses, corporations, government and education. Minnesota has nearly 20 fortune 500 companies. A group like UEL is a connector across multiple industries and groups. We work with the University, with investors, directly with entrepreneurs, and we have some strong links to the state of Minnesota and the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis

contact:
DIANE RUCKER, Executive Director of University Enterprise Laboratories: 612.770.9023; diane@uelmn.org;
www.uelmn.org.

Events

Andrew Tellijohn

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