The design drawings and site plan for Edge Works, an eight-story business incubation hub that will serve as a centerpiece for SciTech Scity, were approved by the Jersey City planning board.
The planning board also approved subdividing the land into plots for two other key components of SciTech Scity: Liberty Science Center High School and Scholars Village.
SciTech Scity, the 30-acre “City of Tomorrow” being developed by Liberty Science Center, is expected to have a huge impact on Jersey City and the state when it opens in late 2023 or early 2024. Edge Works will play a big part of that.
Edge Works will consist of the Co-Creation Center, a 40,000-square-foot state-of-the-art conference center and bleeding-edge tech exhibition gallery, and the Works, 60,000 square feet of research and development labs, workspaces and coworking desks for startups and entrepreneurs, plus skunkworks suites, product showcases, consumer testing labs and offices for select established companies in industries that are particularly important to the collective future on the planet.
The components of SciTech Scity
It’s easy — and impressive — to list the parts of SciTech Scity (see full story here):
- Edge Works: An eight-story, 100,000-square-foot business incubation hub that includes a conference center and research & development space for both startups and well-established companies;
- Liberty Science Center High School: It aims to be the best STEM high school in the country;
- Scholars Village: Residential housing for innovators, scientists, entrepreneurs, STEM graduate students and anyone who wants to be a part of the SciTech Scity community;
- Public Commons: 4 acres of outdoor activations that encourage exploration, creativity, collaboration and innovation.
Liberty Science Center CEO Paul Hoffman said Edge Works will have great impact.
“Edge Works will be a business optimizer, a new breed of innovation center that maximizes commercial success and social impact,” he said. “Our goal is to convene experts from multiple disciplines and harness science and technology to solve social problems and turn leading-edge ideas into a reality that makes the world a radically better place.”
At the heart of the community, Edge Works will be interconnected with each of the SciTech Scity elements: Liberty Science Center High School, Scholars Village and a Public Commons.
The approval from the planning board is the third recent major development for SciTech Scity.
On Oct. 22, Gov. Phil Murphy led a groundbreaking at the site. It was also announced that Israel’s Sheba Medical Center, the largest hospital system in the Middle East and one of the top 10 hospitals in the world, will be the first innovation partner and first international tenant of Edge Works.
Subsequent phases of SciTech Scity may include expanded incubation spaces, wet labs, additional schools, a satellite campus of a major university or other facilities to drive STEM innovation and job creation.
