Ohio State Breaks Ground on Tower for Tech and Life Sciences Startups
The eight-story Timashev Technology Tower will provide shared wet labs and space for companies and student founders on Ohio State’s Columbus campus.
Ohio State University broke ground Oct. 20 on the Timashev Technology Tower, an eight-story, 103,000-square-foot building planned for its Columbus campus. The project will bring shared laboratory facilities and space for technology and life sciences companies into the Columbus Innovation District, linking startups with university research and resources.
The tower is designed to lower the barrier for early-stage teams that need specialized facilities to test ideas. Ohio State says a university-managed wet lab will offer access to workbenches, equipment and meeting space within days, rather than requiring companies to raise millions to build their own labs.
Labs and startup space under one roof
The building will also house Ohio State’s Center for Software Innovation, providing a dedicated base for startups emerging from BuildX. The university program supports student founders through the stages of launching a company, and the tower will offer them flexible coworking areas and dedicated offices.
Ohio State President Ravi V. Bellamkonda said the planned mix includes startups, established companies, students, researchers and employees. That combination is intended to bring people from different fields into closer contact, while connecting software ventures with the university’s research and life sciences activity.
Funding and project timeline
Ohio State graduate and software entrepreneur Ratmir Timashev and his wife, Angela, made a gift through their family foundation to develop the tower and support educational programming at the Center for Software Innovation. The amount of the gift has not been announced. JobsOhio said it intends to provide a significant low-interest loan; it did not disclose the loan amount.
The project is part of JobsOhio’s commitment to invest $100 million in the Columbus Innovation District. The district also includes Ohio State’s Energy Advancement and Innovation Center and Pelotonia Research Center. A new partnership with Google is expected to bring Google Cloud engineers and Google DeepMind research capabilities closer to Ohio State faculty and students. The tower’s completion date has not been announced.
This report draws on information from JobsOhio.
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