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Press Release

January 15, 2025

BioMed Realty Helps Bring Innovative Quantum Incubator to Colorado

To kick off the International Year of Quantum Science in 2025, three Colorado universities in collaboration with Elevate Quantum have announced that a new facility for fostering quantum technologies is coming to BioMed Realty’s Flatiron Park in Boulder, Colorado.

The new quantum incubator is part of the state’s efforts to bring advances in quantum physics out of the lab and into the real world.

The 13,000-square-foot quantum incubator will be located at 5555 Central Ave., a 26,000-square-foot building at Flatiron Park in Boulder. Flatiron Park, a hub for life science and technology innovation, consists of 23 buildings and more than 1 million square feet of space for technology and life science tenants.

“With the momentum around quantum growing in the US and across the globe, we are thrilled to partner with CU Boulder, Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines and Elevate Quantum,” said Jon Bergschneider, BioMed Realty’s President of West Coast Markets. “Colorado is a leading hub for technology and science, and we’re excited to provide the mission-critical infrastructure at Flatiron Park that’ll be home to quantum innovation for many years to come.”

The facility will include a collaborative office environment for early stage quantum companies and state-of-the-art scientific equipment—providing a testbed to transform ideas for quantum technologies into products that will benefit consumers in Colorado and beyond. Quantum technologies could include sensors for detecting signs of illness in human breath or networks that may one day send data that can’t be hacked over long distances.

The quantum incubator is one piece of a wide-ranging effort to grow the Mountain West region as a “center of mass” for quantum technology, said Scott Sternberg, executive director of the CUbit Quantum Initiative at CU Boulder. It is especially timely as UNESCO has deemed 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.

JILA, a joint research institute between CU Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has served as the regional epicenter for quantum research for over 60 years.

In 2023, the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) named Elevate Quantum, headquartered in Denver, as an official tech hub for quantum information technology. Since that designation, the coalition has secured more than $120 million in funding to grow the quantum industry in Colorado and the Mountain West.

As part of that effort, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed into law House Bill 1325 in 2024, which directed funds to create the new incubator. Today, the quantum industry supports about 3,000 jobs in the state, but that number could grow to more than 10,000 in the next decade.

“We asked the question: What is Boulder great at when it comes to quantum?” Sternberg said. “And how can the incubator provide a catalyst to make these assets even greater?”

Center of mass

The quantum incubator will not be alone in Colorado. In June, the U.S. National Science Foundation announced a $20 million National Quantum Nanofab facility that will be constructed on the CU Boulder campus. Elevate Quantum is also launching a 70-acre campus in Arvada, Colorado, called the Quantum COmmons, with an initial 30,000 square feet of shared-use facilities being developed by Colorado School of Mines in support of Elevate Quantum partners.

Sternberg sees these facilities as part of a progression—helping companies go from papers in a scientific journal, to new prototypes, to products built at scale and, eventually, to the market.

“Colorado’s new quantum facilities will help turn discoveries in the lab into real-world applications, continuing our leadership in quantum science and creating thousands of new jobs for Coloradans,” said Eve Lieberman, executive director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. “We are excited to celebrate this milestone and look forward to the achievements it will bring to our state.”

The new Boulder facility will also be a vibrant place to work. Physicists, engineers, lab workers and businesspeople can meet quantum experts from Colorado and around the world to share ideas and expertise. They’ll also be able to run experiments on equipment rarely seen outside of large universities. That could include working atomic clocks or devices that measure the extremely fast “ticking” of atoms.

If interested in being part of the quantum incubator, reach out to cubit@colorado.edu.

January 15, 2025