Surrey’s Health and Technology District is the model for a similar venture taking shape in Canada’s Atlantic region.
Surrey-based Lark Group is a step closer to establishing a health-tech district in Saint John, New Brunswick, in a public-private-academic partnership with Opportunities New Brunswick and University of New Brunswick.
With a letter of intent signed by the three parties, Phase 1 of a three-phase project includes a 75,000-square-foot building on the periphery of a UNB campus, adjacent to the regional hospital there.
Saint John is “poised to become the leading hub for digital health in Atlantic Canada,” according to a news release from Lark Group, whose Surrey Health and Technology District consists of eight high-tech buildings located next to Surrey Memorial Hospital.
The Surrey hub is described as an “innovation ecosystem where entrepreneurs, startups and multinational organizations are co-located with researchers, clinicians, academics to work in partnership to accelerate the implementation of technologies and solutions towards health care impacts and improvements.”
VIDEO AND STORY, from 2018: Health and Technology District breaks ground on new building.
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The Health and Technology District from Health and Technology District on Vimeo.
Rowena Rizzotti, vice-president of healthcare and innovation at Lark Group, said the company “had the incredible foresight to establish the Health and Technology District in Surrey next to one of Canada’s busiest hospitals, which gives the district a distinct advantage in attracting health-tech organizations from all over the world to join the ecosystem.
“We also see the unparalleled potential, synergies and possibilities of establishing an east coast district in Saint John, New Brunswick, through this optimal partnership with ONB and UNB.”
Following some collaborative analysis, Lark Group considers New Brunswick to have “extraordinary strengths” in new technologies, cybersecurity and entrepreneurship.
Family-owned and -operated, Lark Group (www.larkgroup.com) is a development, construction and facility management company in operation since 1972. The company constructed the three-rink North Surrey Sport & Ice Complex, among other projects.
• RELATED STORY, from 2016: A HUB of health-tech companies creates a buzz near Surrey Memorial Hospital.
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