San Francisco Is The Top Choice For Stem Cell Institute Headquarters

San Francisco bested three competing California cities Monday in the battle to land the headquarters of the state's $3 billion stem cell program, scoring well ahead of the second-place finisher. After totaling up points for location, amenities and general impressions, key decision makers for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine decided San Francisco was clearly the best place to be. Although there is still technically a chance of an upset, it appears almost certain that the institute's full 29-member board, known as the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, will go along with the eight-member subcommittee's preferences when it meets Friday to make the final call. Sacramento narrowly edged out San Diego as the No. 2 choice, while a proposed site in Emeryville finished last. San Francisco won largely on the strength of the Bay Area's biomedical research institutions, as well as the estimated $17 million value of incentives the city is offering the stem cell program, which include 10 years of free rent, $900,000 worth of hotel accommodations and free use of laboratory facilities at San Francisco General Hospital. San Diego and San Francisco had long been considered the most likely choices. Although the Southern California city's bid was boosted by a location surrounded by other top research centers and biotech companies, it had no comparable offer on hotels and lab space. Sacramento's proximity to state government and low housing costs pushed its score much higher than many observers had expected, despite the city's lack of biomedical heft. Emeryville, where the stem cell program is being housed on a temporary basis, was praised for local enthusiasm for the stem cell venture -- but penalized for not having big conference facilities other than borrowed space at two local businesses, Chiron Corp. and Pixar.

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