University of Maryland, Baltimore, reshapes city’s economic status, intellectual landscape

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - It’s an awesome number to think about. Every $1 in state funding received by the University of Maryland, Baltimore, returns $16.54 in financial activity to the economy of the Baltimore region.

“Over the past 10 years, we’ve had significant growth,” said Jim Hill, UMB’s vice president for administration and finance. “We’ve more than doubled our research efforts in the past 10 years and that’s brought in a heck of a lot of money that generates new jobs.”

UMB turns 200 this year, and its economic prowess is building steam to carry it well into the future.

David S. Iannucci, Baltimore County’s director of economic development, said UMB helped put the region “on the map.”

“A well-educated work force is the Baltimore region’s most important economic development tool,” Iannucci said. “The professional schools and research at the University of Maryland, Baltimore help put us on the map as a world-class center for discovery and intellectual capital.”

Statistics from a 2006 study conducted by the Jacob France Institute, the economic research center at the University of Baltimore, looked at UMB’s economic impact through purchases it makes from Maryland companies, and salaries and benefits paid to its faculty and staff. Just in income tax and sales tax, the university and its personnel contribute between $27.6 million and $32 million, according to the study.

UMB’s building program, particularly at the BioPark, adds millions of dollars to the economy through construction contracts and salaries paid to construction workers.

“We receive the money from the state and have to go out on bids, and it’s the private sector we go to for those bids,” Hill said.

The 10-acre BioPark will offer 1.2 million square feet of lab and office space in 11 buildings and create 2,500 jobs and $300 million in capital investment, according to data.

Jane Shaab, vice president of economic development at UMB, said Baltimore’s rich history in medical research, led for decades by neighboring Johns Hopkins University, leads demand from emerging life science businesses.

“The raw material that gets biotech going is research,” Shaab said. “We’ve got the raw material and will continue to have it.”

kcarson@baltimoreexaminer.com

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