The biotech cluster from the Manchester Millyard to Nashua was one of 31 programs in the country chosen for economic development by the U.S. Department of Commerce, which designed “Tech Hubs” that can compete for $500 million in federal funding.
“The program … is primed to accelerate the effort launched six years ago by inventor Dean Kamen to make the Manchester Millyard and Southern New Hampshire a global headquarters for the production of human cells, tissues and organs,” wrote the New Hampshire Business Review. Full story is here.
Back when Dean Kamen started buying up empty Millyard space in the early 1980s, local officials balked when he said he wanted to add air conditioners for the research and development engineers he planned to house in the buildings.
Manchester leaders had a hard time envisioning the former global textile powerhouse as anything but a manufacturing center.
“I remember back in the ‘80s when there was a tree growing out of a mill building,” said Mayor Joyce Craig, a native of Manchester.
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