Axogen’s Aim: Growing Tampa Into a Hub for Nerve Repair Treatment Technology
As a biotech company at the forefront of nerve repair treatment, UF startup and UF Innovate | Sid Martin Biotech alum Axogen, Inc., a global leader in developing and marketing innovative surgical solutions for damage or discontinuity to peripheral nerves, has always been near the front of the scientific curve.
But they’ve also done okay on the real estate front.
Three years ago, the company, founded in Gainesville, signed a 75,000-square-foot lease for a second headquarters at Tampa’s Heights Union, which was at that point still under construction — as were office buildings in developments like Water Street Tampa and Midtown Tampa. Since then, many of those office buildings have opened up and signed even more tenants. Heights Union, for example, recently signed pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to a lease of more than 100,000 square feet.
“We were trying to think about what attracts talent,” CEO Karen Zaderej said of Axogen’s headquarters search. “We wanted the work environment to be that work-live-play environment, where you can pop in and grab food easily at a restaurant, you can go for a run or a walk, you can go work out. Those are the things that we were looking for. We just felt the Heights offered all of those things.”
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