During a hard-hat tour of the new state health lab on Tuesday, Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee motioned to a scene a short distance away on Richmond Street in Providence’s Jewelry District, where construction crews are building a life sciences building for Brown University.
McKee’s message: the two nearby structures dovetail with the state’s effort to add jobs while building its life-sciences sector.
But uncertainties abound, from the prospect of a possible recession, the effect of research-funding cuts by the Trump administration, and Rhode Island’s current laggard status in the life-sciences sector.
Regardless, McKee called progress on the new state health lab “pretty fantastic” and something that will result in “putting people to work, good-paying jobs. This is part of the billions of dollars that’s in the pipeline now since I’ve been governor that are putting people to work building things.”
The $82 million lab is funded by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the structure housing it will include private wet-lab space. The lab, a successor to an older version on Orms Street, is due to open this fall.
Brown University is helping to support a life-sciences incubator in the building.
The lab will include the only level 3 biosafety facility, used for studying airborne and potentially lethal microbes, in the state.
Lab Director Dr. Glen Gallagher led the tour for McKee and a group of reporters, pointing out that different aspects of the lab will handle environmental sciences, assist law enforcement with forensics, or aid the response to infectious diseases and other issues facing Rhode Islanders.
“The work that happens here really touches every component of their lives, whether they know it or not — whether that’s in the air you breathe, the water that you drink or for recreational purposes,” Gallagher said.
He said the new facility will offer about 25% more lab space than the current building, with more flexibility and state-of-the-art technology. He expects about 100 people will work at the lab.
The structure housing the lab was built on a formerly vacant parcel in the I-195 District, close to downtown and contained in the Jewelry District.
