It's official: Draper on way to Tampa Bay area

A Massachusetts R&D firm that builds tiny biomedical machines will indeed open satellite labs in Tampa and St. Petersburg, Gov. Charlie Crist announced today.

Draper Laboratory, a spinoff of MIT, will employ at least 100 people at a laboratory at the University of South Florida in Tampa and another 65 in St. Petersburg, said Len Polizzotto, Draper’s director of strategic development.

Most employees will have master's level degrees or higher, he said, and recruiting will start within weeks.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,’’ Polizzotto said. “I don’t want to waste any time.’’

 

Word of Draper’s interest in Florida surfaced earlier this month when local governments voted to underwrite the venture with $30-million in economic incentives. Crist’s announcement was confirmation that the deal has been sealed.

The State of Florida’s Innovation Incentive fund will provide $15-million. USF’s Research Foundation, Hillsborough County and Pinellas County also contributed. The city of St. Petersburg will provide land for a manufacturing plant of multichip modules, complex integrated circuits that can run tiny machines.

--Steve Nohlgren, Times staff writer

[Exterior view of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. AP Photo]