Ion District
The Ion District, Ion Innovation District, or Rice Innovation District, is a technology park and innovation district in Midtown Houston which was established as a joint initiative between Rice University and the City of Houston. It has also been called the South Main Innovation District. The district's central hub and first building is the Ion, which opened in 2021 after owner Rice Management Company converted it from a former Sears store. The building houses coworking and office spaces, business incubators and accelerators, classrooms, a prototyping lab, investor studio, and restaurants. Current tenants include Chevron Technology Ventures, Microsoft, and Liongard. The district also includes Greentown Labs Houston, a business incubator focused on climate technology and sustainable energy, and a large outdoor plaza.
RMC, a division of Rice University, is leading development of the project. Local students and community members have expressed a range of concerns about the project including housing affordability, food accessibility, employment, and the potential gentrification of the nearby Third Ward, a predominantly African-American community. The Ion is located in what was originally Third Ward.
Description
The Ion District is a innovation district in Midtown, Houston. The district is anchored by the Ion, which serves as a central "hub for startups, corporations, venture capitalists, business accelerator programs, academics and others", according to the Houston Chronicle. The district's Greentown Labs Houston is the largest climate technology and sustainable energy incubator in North America, housed in a building that was previously leased to a Fiesta Mart supermarket. The market was a source of fresh produce for residents in nearby Third Ward which was classified as a food desert. A large plaza designed by James Corner Field Operations is adjacent to the Ion building. The Ion building sits across the street from the Wheeler Transit Center, a major transit hub. The developer also has plans to build a parking garage and a greenway for pedestrians and bicyclists.Ion building
The Ion is a, six-level building on Main Street in what was formerly a four-story Sears department store built in 1939 and closed in 2018. The $100 million renovation project, which began in 2019 and was completed in 2021, expanded the building to include two additional floors and involved removing aluminum sheeting, restoring Art Deco architectural stylings, adding additional windows, and constructing a lightwell. The building has coworking and office spaces, business incubators and accelerators, classrooms, a prototyping lab, investor studio, and restaurants. The building's Forum Stairs event area includes seating for up to 250 people.Tenants include Chevron Technology Ventures, Microsoft, and the coworking company Common Desk. TXRX Labs operates the 6,500 square foot Ion Prototyping Lab, which provides equipment, engineering and technical support, and training to member entrepreneurs and startups. Equipment includes 3D printers, laser cutters, lathes, CNC mills, and other manufacturing tools. Eateries include Late August, The Lymbar, Second Draught, and Common Bond On-the-Go, an outpost of a bakery located in Houston's Montrose neighborhood.
In 2021, the Ion's management team invited local artists to submit proposals for site-specific art installations in windows along two streets. Works by two winning artists or teams will rotate every six months. The commission budget was $20,000 per display. Works by Lina Dib and Preston Gaines were installed in 2022; Dib's Self-Portrait in the Garden has been described as "a lush, though thoroughly artificial garden of Astro turf, plastic plants and pink flamingos" with "a horizontal screen, suspended at a slight angle, which captures and transplants images of people in front of the window into a virtual garden of psychedelic foliage, which incrementally covers up the mirrored subject unless he/she/they move their body".
Greentown Labs Houston
Located on San Jacinto Street, Greentown Labs Houston is an incubator and the second U.S. location operated by Somerville, Massachusetts-based Greentown Labs. The approximately incubator provides funding and office space for approximately 50 startups. The retrofitted building was previously operated and vacated by Fiesta Mart and has community spaces, labs, concrete floors, loading docks, and a trash compactor.History
Development
Rice Management Company and its partners announced plans to convert a former Sears store into an innovation center in April 2018. The department store chain had a 99-year lease agreement with Rice University since 1945, and RMC bought the company out of the lease in 2017. RMC led the expansion and renovation of the store, which closed in 2018. SHoP Architects, Gensler, James Carpenter Design Associates, and Walter P Moore designed the new structure.In July 2019, Houston mayor Sylvester Turner, Rice University president David Leebron, and representatives of the city attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the Ion's redevelopment. Master plans for the district were revealed in November 2019. Jan Odegard, the former executive director of Rice University's Ken Kennedy Institute, became the Ion's executive director in June 2020. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ion hosted online programming, including "Family Tech Night" and events for startups.
In mid 2020, Greentown Labs announced plans to open a second incubator in Houston, having considered the city since 2019. In September 2020, the firm confirmed plans to retrofit a former Fiesta Mart store, which the operator had closed two months prior because of declining sales. Additionally, Greentown Labs revealed plans to raise $10 million for the renovation project and three years of working capital. The firm had raised approximately $8 million by September 2020, and building construction began the following month.
In February 2021, Turner hosted a "reveal" ceremony for the incubator, which had approximately 20 corporate partners and 16 inaugural startups at the time. Companies that contributed to the project included BHP, CenterPoint Energy, Chevron, Gexa Energy, Shell, Vinson & Elkins, Wells Fargo, and Williams. In April 2021, Greentown Labs received a certificate of occupancy and 30 companies began moving into the space. The incubator opened on Earth Day 2021. The grand opening ceremony was livestreamed and had limited in-person attendance because of the pandemic, which also forced Greentown Labs Houston to scale back programming temporarily.
Tenants and property management
Chevron Technology Ventures was named the first tenant and program partner for the Ion in August 2020. Microsoft, which also became a program partner, announced in August 2020 it would invest $1 million into social entrepreneurship programs as part of its participation, and was confirmed as a tenant, along with Common Desk, in late 2020. Houston-based Transwestern became the property manager in November 2020.The Austin-based innovation and mentorship provider Capital Factory has Houston headquarters in the Ion, as of 2021. In October 2021, the musical theatre production company Theatre Under The Stars announced plans to establish an education and arts center as an anchor tenant in the next phase of the district's development. TXRX Labs has operated the Ion Prototyping Lab since January 2022. In addition to the tenant restaurants in the Ion building, Stuff'd Wings has been a district tenant since April 2022. Established in 2019, the restaurants previously operated as a food truck.
Partnerships and accelerators
The Ion district announced its first academic partnership in January 2020; Rice University's Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies offered courses on computer and data science, financial services, human resources, leadership development, and project management to Ion members. In March 2020, the Ion and the Austin-based nonprofit organization DivInc announced a partnership to develop programs for women and minority entrepreneurs. The Latinx Startup Alliance partnered with the Ion to support Latino entrepreneurs and began hosting virtual programming in October 2020. The Houston-based law firm Baker Botts joined Chevron Technology Ventures and Microsoft as a founding partner in March 2021. According to Community Impact Newspaper, the energy, life sciences, and technology-focused firm "has supported The Ion since its inception and has provided programming over the last few years". Aramco Americas also joined as a founding partner. In addition to being a tenant, Capital Factory formed a programming partnership with the Ion in October 2021 to offer events and resources on-site for startups.The Ion's Accelerator Hub includes the Ion Smart and Resilient Cities Accelerator, the Aerospace Innovation Accelerator for Minority Business Enterprises, the Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator, and DivInc Houston. The Ion team established the ISRCA in September 2019 to focus on disaster recovery. Community Impact Newspaper has said the ISRCA "addresses the needs of Houston and cities across America by deploying technology into existing civic infrastructure", and participating startups "have the chance to build relationships with mentors, corporate networks, municipality decision-makers, and stakeholder partners, and gain exposure in the Greater Houston region". The AIA for MBEs supports startups in their development of solutions for aerospace-related challenges, and the Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator focuses on sustainable energy projects.
In September 2020, the district received $1.5 million from the Economic Development Administration's Build to Scale program to support the Accelerator Hub's creation. The district received a $1.4 million federal grant from the Minority Business Development Agency in October 2020 to establish an aerospace engineering accelerator in partnership with NASA's Johnson Space Center and DivInc. The ISRCA's third cohort began a 12-week program at the Ion in March 2021. The AIA for MBEs launched in April 2021, with four BIPOC-owned companies selected to participate in the first 12-week program.