Activation Capital had planned to build a research lab on a parking lot it owns at Jackson and Eighth streets on its VA Bio+Tech Park campus. The organization says it is now planning the project for a different location. (BizSense file)
With a new chief executive now at its helm, Activation Capital has nixed long-held plans to build a research lab on a downtown parking lot, and is now planning to situate the project elsewhere.
The organization, which supports companies and entrepreneurs in the life sciences sector, has decided to not use its property at the corner of Eighth and Jackson streets in Richmond as the site for what has long been envisioned as a 100,000-square-foot, multi-story research lab facility, CEO Mike Steele said.
Steele, who was named the organization’s president and CEO last week, said Activation Capital is still committed to the project, albeit on a smaller scale and at a yet-to-be-announced location. He said the facility would serve the same purpose as the original so-called Innovation Center project and act as a lab hub with resources for startups.
“We’re in the final stages of making that selection,” Steele said of the new location. “We’re still going to have the incubator, serve startups and small businesses, and provide access to programming.”
He declined to share details of the new plan for the Innovation Center project.
Steele said rising construction costs and interest rates in recent years were a factor in the decision to move away from the property bordered by Jackson, Leigh, Eighth and Seventh streets. Also in play was a reevaluation of the demand for the office space that the project was intended to provide.
The parking lot property where Activation Capital had planned to build the Innovation Center project, as seen in 2024. (BizSense file)
Activation Capital had planned to build a lab facility on the parking lot since before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Over the years, the project has been described publicly as a building of around 100,000 square feet that would be four to six stories tall. By last summer, Activation Capital said it was also weighing a two-story project of 25,000 square feet as an alternative to that larger concept.
While the project is said to remain in the works, Activation Capital is considering its options for the parking lot, which is part of the organization’s 34-acre Virginia BioTechnology Research Park campus. Steele said the site could potentially be used for a different facility or sold off.
The evolving plans for the Innovation Center come as Steele takes the helm at Activation Capital.
Mike Steele was recently named CEO of Activation Capital. (Courtesy Nick Davis/Activation Capital)
Named the organization’s president and CEO last week, Steele takes the reins from Rob Ward, former president and CEO of Skanska USA Commercial Development and an advisor to Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Ward led Activation Capital as interim CEO for about a year after being appointed to the role in July 2024, shortly after the exit of Chandra Briggman from the CEO position she had held for four years.
Steele has more than two decades of leadership experience in the life sciences sector, with stints at companies like Chembio Diagnostics, SeraCare Life Sciences, and Serologicals, according to an Activation Capital news release. Prior to Activation Capital, Steele was working as a consultant following his 2023 departure from Biocartis, where he was vice president of pharma partnering.
A Virginia native and James Madison University grad, Steele moved back to the Old Dominion to retire after his career took him to several different states. However, a conversation with friends about the state of the life sciences scene in Virginia led to a suggestion that he get acquainted with Ward, who was then interim CEO at Activation Capital.
Steele said he wanted to offer his services as an advisor, but Ward floated the idea of Steele taking on the CEO job.
Now a few days into his job at the helm of Activation Capital, Steele said he felt Virginia’s life sciences industry, which includes pharmaceuticals, medical devices and biotechnology, was in a strong position that would benefit from a more proactive leadership role from Activation Capital.
“Most of the states I’ve been a part of have a lot of integration. It seems like we have a lot of disparate entities all trying to do the right thing to varying degrees of success,” Steele said. “I’m hoping there’s a leadership role for us.”
Activation Capital is overseen by the Virginia Biotechnology Partnership Authority, an independent state authority with many of its members appointed by the governor.
Steele said Activation Capital’s programming was one of the organization’s strong suits, and that he intended to further invest in that area. The organization last year launched accelerator program Frontier BioHealth and expanded Start-the-Journey, a pre-accelerator for emerging startup founders.
Steele said he wants to attract more life-sciences manufacturing to Virginia. He said that would build on biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca’s July announcement that it would establish a manufacturing facility in Virginia, as well as ongoing public-private efforts to further develop a pharmaceutical manufacturing hub in Petersburg, where companies like Phlow and Civica have facilities.
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