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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Micah Johnson interviews Anton Dormer, the founder of BioLabShare, a pioneering co-living and co-working life science community in Huntsville, Alabama. Anton shares his background in chemistry and medicine, and how he identified a gap in affordable lab space for biotech entrepreneurs. The conversation explores the vision behind BioLabShare, the challenges faced in merging real estate with life sciences, and the importance of building a supportive ecosystem for innovation. Anton also discusses the significance of networking and collaboration in attracting startups to the community, as well as investment opportunities for interested parties.
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Anton Dormer (00:00)
Well, you know, in life, every time there’s a problem, there’s a solution. And a lot of times when the problem happens to you, you go, hmm, you know, there must be a solution to this. So one of my companies that I wanted to move to Baltimore to be next to John Hopkins University and the University of Maryland in Baltimore. And when we were looking for lab space for this startup, in which a group of investors were part of, we found it to be so expensive.Micah Johnson (02:02)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Micah Johnson. And today I’m joined by Anton Dormer, who is doing something unique in real estate and how he’s combining it with the life science research space when it comes to healthcare. Anton, welcome in, I’m excited to have you.Anton Dormer (02:21)
I’m so excited to be here. Thank you very much. I greatly appreciate being part of this podcast.Micah Johnson (02:28)
man, think our listeners are,they’re gonna love the story and what it is that you’re really working on and how you’re approaching it. So let’s dive into it. So for people who may not know you yet, what is your main focus right now and what markets are taking place in?
Anton Dormer (02:43)
Okay, well let me just give everyone a quick educational background of what I have. I’m a chemist, physician, a master’s in biotechnology. I’ve been in the space of research for several decades. So what we are creating in terms of biolabshare is a next-gen real estate platform built to intersect both life science, health AI, and also workforce empowerment. know, the country, biotechnology and health innovation growth is actually constrainedbecause of a lack of affordability of its environment. so BiolabShare is creating a life science mix to this community, which maximizes affordability so that individuals can be innovative. And so we are developing the first and only co-living, co-working life science with a safe community in the state of Alabama. And our model combines income producing with residential units.
along with revenue generating web labs that we lease out to different startup companies, and of course, a dedicated health AI center with offices. And so this is an intersection of both real estate and also life sciences by technology and health AI innovation.
Micah Johnson (04:03)
Man, that’s fascinating. it’s, this is, I talked to a lot of folks and this isn’t a project I’ve heard about before. So the first one is in Alabama. I didn’t know there was others other places. So give us a bird’s eye view of what we’re talking about. It sounds a lot like a campus.Anton Dormer (04:23)
Okay, so we are in the emphasis on creating a campus. So if you’re fly in and take a look at what we’re doing, what you will see is 17 duplexes with 34 units. And then you will see the lab, the 15,000 square foot lab, and also a 6,000 square foot real estate recreational center.Okay, so when it is done and you’re flying in, what you will see is 17 duplexes with 34 units where individuals who are the entrepreneurs will be able to walk in a park-like area or environment and be able to walk into a 15,000 square foot
two stories. And then if they are, you know, once they finish the work, we will also have a nice 6,000 square foot recreational center. So basically this is on 10 acres.
The actual plot of land, which is owned by my family, is like 25 acres. And we are designated 10 acres of it to this BioLab share Biohub where we are looking for life science, biotech, health, AI, entrepreneurs to live and then of course work.
Micah Johnson (06:24)
Now what brought this idea on? Like I’m so fascinated. How did you mix real estate and life science research?Anton Dormer (06:32)
Well, you know, in life, every time there’s a problem, there’s a solution. And a lot of times when the problem happens to you, you go, hmm, you know, there must be a solution to this. So one of my companies that I wanted to move to Baltimore to be next to John Hopkins University and the University of Maryland in Baltimore. And when we were looking for lab space for this startup, in which a group of investors were part of, we found it to be so expensive.And we just couldn’t find a decent space for us to start. As I mentioned before, John Hopkins University have a biotechnology incubator and a lab bench costs almost $1,000 a month. And it’s only like five or six feet wide. And then you have to lease the office space. And I said to myself, self, it’s be a better way.
Micah Johnson (07:23)
man.Anton Dormer (07:30)
I’m in the field of research and if I have a very good idea, it would be very difficult for me to scale and find those type of funding. And so Huntsville came into play and I said to myself, this is going to be a good location. The cost is low and I can provide the same type of amenities these other larger biotech life sciences communities have across country in New York, San Francisco, Resource Triangle, et cetera.Now lower cost, same quality or even better quality. And so this is how BioLabshare came to be and how it came to be placed in Huntsville. love
Micah Johnson (08:11)
Now, did you pick Huntsville randomly ⁓ or how that connection back to Huntsville?Anton Dormer (08:18)
Well, let me tell you a little bit about my background and see my connection to Huntsville. Born in New York, but my family moved to Huntsville, Alabama. So went to elementary school there, went to high school there, went to college there before going off to medical school. And I just found that particular environment to be very enriching. know, the Bristol Arsenal is there, Hudson Alpha is there.It has the second largest research park in the country. A lot of people don’t know that. It has 25,000 acres. University of Alabama in Huntsville. has the highest per capita of engineers in all of the United States in Huntsville, Alabama. So it’s a very intellectual town. So the choice of Huntsville was obvious. Here I have three universities, Alabama A &M, University of Alabama.
Huntsville, University, given a nice, wonderful environment. And plus, my family had a 25-acre estate, and I said that this would be a good fit for what we have done in the past of the family in terms of real estate to provide these particular opportunities for entrepreneurs in this sector.
Micah Johnson (09:41)
love that. So you’re taking a family history of real estate, now mixing it with your passion to bring something to life that never existed before. That’s one of the reasons I love real estate. It’s such a big umbrella. There’s so many ways to be involved with it. Now, in the prerecording, you were saying there was another company that’s pretty big moving there, isn’t there? Putting a big facility in?Anton Dormer (09:53)
Yes.Yes, Eli and Lindy, $9 billion. They built a biotech pharmaceutical plant there. So it is really up and coming in terms of individuals moving in, and it’s one of the hottest estate markets in America. Austin is kind of cooling off. Huntsville is still on
Micah Johnson (10:40)
Wow.Anton Dormer (11:02)
fire.Micah Johnson (11:03)
It’ll still heating up. Okay, so with this kind of project, have been some challenges with it? What have been some things you’ve had to work through as you’ve gone along?Anton Dormer (11:15)
with any type of project of this scale, the $50 million that we are planning to spend to complete the project, of course, bringing individuals in, finding those individuals who are interested in such a very complex, but yet a project with a very high return on investment. And so, there has been a challenge trying to get them to understand that this is a real estate deal, which happenedto have individuals who would be in the biotech space utilize this space for health innovation.
Micah Johnson (11:53)
Interesting. Okay. So the real estate deal part comes into the fact that the duplexes aren’t going to be sold. They’re just going to be leased out. And then you’re going to lease office space or lease lab space. And you’re going to have pretty much a kind of a closed group that’s in there for extended periods of time and then just rolling them through. it’s your ideal customer that’s going to live there. What are they trying to build?Anton Dormer (12:00)
that.Okay, so what did I develop in? Let’s go into the details of how to go about creating therapeutics. They’re health innovations in terms of medicines that will cure a particular disease. My focus have been in the area of cancer and also immunological diseases, so that’s my interest. And so we’re looking for a wide variety of companies that will…
be working to develop solutions to help problems that we have now. And we believe by creating this type of environment, the one that is closed, but yet open, an ecosystem in which they have a whole bunch of individuals who are like-minded, the open space is ideal to foster health innovations that have not been accomplished recently.
Micah Johnson (13:15)
And it makes sense too, because in the end, when you remove a lot of the worries that someone’s dealing with, especially in the high level entrepreneur space, when home’s taken care of, gym’s taken care of, there’s food around, and you have more space for your mind to think about that particular passion project, it goes way further, way faster.Anton Dormer (13:36)
That’s right, he hit a nail in the head.Micah Johnson (13:40)
So looking ahead, what are y’all most focused on solving next? Where are y’all currently at in the project?Anton Dormer (13:47)
Okay, we have started to build. So we are starting with two of the 17 duplexes. We just got the funding for the next five. And so each of the duplex costs about $320,000. And so we have put up the money for that. So we have put up the land at 10 acres, which is about to work about a million dollars, debt-free. And then of course, we have started to project ourselves using our own funds.And so we have spent another, in essence, million dollars in terms of debt and other reserves. So we have about $2 million in. So we have skin in the game. And we want to partner and bring other individuals in to help us finish the phase one. The phase one consists again of 17 duplexes and 34 units. And then phase two will be the 50,000 square foot lab. And then of course, the 5600 square foot recreational center.
Micah Johnson (14:47)
And are y’all getting interest yet? Are you into the stage where you’re interviewing entrepreneurs for this? How do you plan on finding those potential people to come live there?Anton Dormer (15:39)
Right, so we have partnerships. ⁓ just finished this early this morning, have a conversation with a VC firm that will be assisting me in that particular process, helping to screen the entrepreneurs that will be part of our ecosystem. I’ve just hired a director of the Health AI Center. And so things are moving on really, really quickly as I continue to expand and build a team. But again, you have to have the real estate.All of this is just a pipe dream if people can’t live here, if people can’t work here. And so that is the fundamental focus at this time.
Micah Johnson (16:19)
Now this may seem like a side question, but you kind of touched on it just there. How important has it been to build a network and strong relationships with others for this project?Anton Dormer (16:19)
you⁓ It is the utmost importance. ⁓ This is a particular project, even though it has a real estate undercurrent to it, of being able to network to bring in entrepreneurs. Because I’m competing with individuals who may want to go to New York because it’s so exciting, because they have Broadway or want to go to California. But I’m hoping that they can see that they can get the same quality.
a better area of ⁓ innovation by being in our BioLabshare buyer hub. So I have to build not only the real estate component, but also a component of networking so that I can be able to recruit startups that will find this particular location compelling and also worthwhile to innovate.
Micah Johnson (17:28)
It doesn’t hurt it’s a hot real estate market there too. Things are growing. People like coming there. And especially if Eli Lilly is building that big of a facility right there, that kind of ties into hopefully what the folks are going to be creating that they’re going to ⁓ developed after at mass scale. So let me ask you this. If someone wanted to connect with you or collaborate with you on this, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you?Anton Dormer (17:30)
Okay.The best place is thru linked in, ⁓ I have my profile there, you can see my resume, what I’ve done in terms of biotech space. We are also doing a refund raise. And so that could also be provided to you so that individuals could go ahead and we’re about to launch, we actually gonna launch this week. And so that could be…
a particular opportunity for them to take a look at our offering. And also we are doing a specialized raise. And this particular raise is for accredited investors. These are individuals that can put in, you know, $200,000, $500,000, et cetera. So that’s going to be a two simultaneous raise so that we can have both non-accredited investors and also accredited investors to be part of this particular wonderful unique.
opportunity in real estate and also life sciences, biotechnology and health, ⁓ AI.
Micah Johnson (18:50)
And that’s what’s cool about it is it’s really two things that touch all of us all the time, right? Like nobody can get away from real estate. We all need somewhere to live. We’re all again, walking on real estate everywhere we go. And then health is a major factor. So for anybody out there that is really passionate about both, you could have your chance here to connect with something pretty big. So Anton, man, I really appreciate your time and your story and your perspective. Again, I-Anton Dormer (19:04)
Definitely.Micah Johnson (19:16)
I love to meet people who are mixing their passions together, especially when it comes to real estate and developing cool projects that aren’t just real estate based also, but really trying to make a difference in the world. You never know what could come out of Huntsville, Alabama here soon. So thank you again for joining me today. And I appreciate for those that are listening, if you found this interesting,Anton Dormer (19:33)
you.Micah Johnson (19:39)
Please like this episode, subscribe to our podcast. We’ll make sure Anton’s LinkedIn link is on the description so you can find him easily. And I hope to have more operators like Anton out there making a difference, creating real businesses that bring real change to the world. So again, Anton, thanks for joining me and we’ll see y’all in the next episode.
