Health care giant Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas plans to bring the next big widget to save on health care costs to fruition in Dallas’ West End neighborhood, in a new two-story innovation hub.
“Texas will be one of our most important markets for growth,” Kevin Cassidy, president of enterprise accounts for Blue Cross Blue Shield, told the Dallas Business Journal.
“There’s a lot of good activity here, a good talent pool and we knew we wanted to create an innovation hub not in any of our current locations,” he added. “There’s no judgment here and we can quickly determine if something works.”
The innovation hub will act like a startup, so the garage-like mentality away from the company’s corporate structure was needed, Cassidy said. That was one reason Blue Cross Blue Shield decided to set up its hub away from its operations center in Richardson.
The hub, called The C1 Innovation Lab, will sit in two floors totaling 31,700 square feet within Factory Six03, which is a historic West End building at 603 Munger St. in Dallas.
In all, the C1 Innovation Lab will employ about 80 workers, which will include seven to 10 researchers. The remainder of employees — half new hires and the other half existing employees within the hub will include a diverse group of company employees ranging from customer-facing advocates to clinicians.
The C1 Innovation Lab will sit in the West End neighborhood, which is evolving into Dallas’ innovation district.
Trey Bowles, co-founder of the Dallas Innovation Alliance and CEO of The Dallas Entrepreneur Center, said he believes Blue Cross Blue Shield will be the first of many companies both startup and corporate to move to the West End neighborhood.
The employees will work alongside big business customers, such as Dallas-based AT&T Inc. and Fort Worth-based American Airlines, academia and financial health care companies, Cassidy said.
“We want to create a place that will move ideas through the process of quick production or quick failure, which will act much like a startup,” he said. “We are excited to innovate and reinvent health care.”
The innovation lab is slated to open with the building in April, with a ceremony with Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick slated for Feb. 23.
The build out of the two floors within the historic West End building is expected to cost a total of $2.5 million. It is part of a larger redo of the 103-year-old brick-and-timber building, which was one the home of a cracker and candy factory.
Plano-based Granite Properties is overseeing the redevelopment of the historic building, with the help of Dallas-based architecture firm GFF and preservation firm, Dallas-based ArchiTexas.
“The West End is part of a growing innovation and knowledge district, and we’re providing the type of space creative users desire,” said Greg Fuller, president and COO of Granite Properties, in a statement.
Terry Mostrom and Greg Gerber of Savills Studley’s Chicago office and Frank McCafferty of Savills Studley’s Dallas office represented Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas in the real estate deal.
Aarica Mims and Burson Holman of Granite Properties represented the landlord and developer.
Construction is underway on the 8th floor addition, which will include a rooftop entertainment space and amenity deck. Factory Six03 will also have two restaurants and a coffee shop on the ground floor in about 11,000 square feet of retail space.
The developer plans to bring in some locally developed concepts into the historic West End building. Granite Properties have yet to finalize those concepts.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas is the only corporate tenant with a fully executed lease at Factory Six03.
Want to see inside the construction of the innovation hub and the building? Check out the attached slideshow.
Date: January 20, 2017