When people talk about bioscience hubs, Boston and Silicon Valley are the two regions that usually come to mind.

But New York City, home to nine academic medical centers, the recipient of nearly $1.3 billion in National Institute of Health funding and home to 125 bioscience companies, is trying to change that. The city is developing two massive biotech parks, one in Brooklyn and on the East River of Manhattan, aiming to house some of the nation’s biotech labs.

The NYC Bioscience Initiative is a private-public partnership with New York City Economic Development Corp., New York City Investment Fund, and Partnership for New York City as well as with the city’s research institutions and investment communities.  The goal of the initiative is to promote the bioscience industry in the New York region, with the two labs: the East River Science Park and BioBat at the Brooklyn Navy Terminal, the centerpiece of that plan. 

“New York City is such a great center of science,” said Lenzie Harcum, vice president of Biosciences New York City Economic Development Corp. “It has the largest concentration of academic medical centers anywhere in the country,” spinning off 20 companies last year alone.

But what New York City lacks -- up until now, anyway -- is cheap space.

“New York has the largest number of (biotech) patents of any city in the U.S.,” said Seth Berkley, president and founder of the International Aids Vaccine Initiative. “When new ideas come up, the companies are spun off and move to Cambridge or Silicon Valley.” There hasn’t been inexpensive space and relatively cheap housing for employees, he said.

International Aids Vaccine Initiative, a global nonprofit created to develop vaccines to prevent HIV infection and AIDS, is the first tenant to move into BioBat. The AIDS Vaccine Design and Development Laboratory will be the only facility in the world focused exclusively on the development of an AIDS vaccine.

According to Berkley, in choosing a home for the AIDS Vaccine Design and Development Laboratory the cost associated with the lab was critical given the group’s nonprofit status. He said there was a tax advantage for coming to Brooklyn because the lab moved into a depressed area -- and since it’s in Brooklyn it provides access to relatively cheap housing compared to New York City. 

The lab is 36,000 square feet, but Berkley said there is an opportunity to expand it further. He said the lab can handle as many as a hundred scientists. The group has already hired 30 full-time scientists.  “New York is an extraordinary place to work,” noted Berkley.

According to Harcum of Biosciences New York City Economic Development Corp., BioBat boasts 486,000 square feet of lab space, while the East River Science Park will have 1.1 million square feet. He said BioBat has the potential to create 1,200 new jobs, while the East River Science Park, which is slated to be ready in the first quarter of 2010, could create 2,000 new jobs. He said the centers will be geared toward companies that have already come out of the incubator phase. 

“The real selling point…is the proximity to medical centers,” he said.