Newly formed Plymouth-based development company Portage Capital Partners has launched its first project, The Tech Loop@Ann Arbor Research Park.
The Tech Loop@Ann Arbor Research Park is a 230,000-square-foot speculative life sciences and tech park on 16.5 acres near I-94 and State Street in Ann Arbor. The first phase will consist of a 79,000-square-foot building followed by another 150,000 square feet across three additional buildings in the second phase.
Portage Capital Partners represents the formalizing of a long-time development, construction and property management relationship between Cameron McCausland of Plant Moran CRESA and Colliers international, and Joe Vig, co-owner of J.S. Vig Construction.
The two real estate professionals have been acquiring and developing real estate together for many years. They have quietly accumulated several dozen buildings totaling roughly 400,000 square feet of life sciences, bio tech, and tech real estate in the Ann Arbor market.
“The University of Michigan is one of the best research universities in the world,” says Vig, a U-Michigan graduate. “Great companies start here. Great companies grow here. We are working hard to keep them here. If a rapidly expanding company needs a 25,000 -or 100,000-square-foot life sciences campus in Ann Arbor today, that’s a challenge. We are addressing that.”
McCausland says Portage Capital’s strategy will continue to be focused on acquiring and developing assets in research and university-driven markets with a high and growing concentration of life science, research and development, and biotechnology activity.
“The life sciences industry is growing at an unprecedented rate,” says McCausland. “I am now receiving several phone calls per week from prospective tenants (and their brokers) in our office/research submarket. And, our goal is to re-develop or develop class A product to meet this demand.”
McCausland and Vig say their combined experience in real estate brokerage, design, construction, and project management, specifically of advanced facilities like labs and engineering centers, gives their new enterprise a competitive and operational advantage.
