University City Science Center’s impact $9B, study says

September 14, 2009

Philadelphia Business Journal

Companies that have gotten their start with the University City Science Center's business incubators have an annual economic impact in the Philadelphia area of $9 billion, according to a study by the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia released Monday.

The center was started in 1963. Since then, companies that have grown out of it have created 15,000 jobs that remain in the area, at an average salary of $89,000, according to the study, entitled, "The University City Science Center: An Engine of Economic Growth for Greater Philadelphia."

Each of those 15,000 jobs generates another 1.68 jobs, the report says, for a total of 40,000 sustained jobs. The companies and organizations, which the science center calls "graduates," contribute $22 million in wage taxes annually to Philadelphia and $42.5 million in income taxes to the state of Pennsylvania.

The Science Center has a main technology park that it operates in University City and a smaller one it operates in Newark, Del. A nonprofit, it's owned by 30 colleges, universities, other research institutions and some economic-development organizations. The University of Pennsylvania is its largest shareholder with a 40 percent stake, followed by Drexel University.

In April, the Science Center said it launched a program to bridge the funding gap life science companies face between research grants and private seed investments.

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