Overland Park ? A company bringing about 100 new bioscience jobs at average salaries of $70,000 soon will be announced for the K-10 corridor, the chairman of the Kansas Bioscience Authority Board said Friday.

Clay Blair, who was elected chairman of the nine-member board in September, told a gathering Friday of the K-10 Assn. that next month’s announcement would be the first of several returns on the $500 million investment made last spring by the Legislature through the Kansas Economic Growth Act.

Other announcements would soon follow, Blair said. One of those involved a downsizing New York company expected to bring 400 jobs to Kansas.

Several smaller prospects would locate to Topeka, he said. That was a development Blair said he welcomed because they would demonstrate the act’s benefits to those in the state capital.

The act reinvests from $500 million to $600 million in tax revenue generated by bioscience companies in life-science research and development.

The legislation established a nine-member board to oversee the authority, which is charged with determining the types of facilities and research to seek, working with universities to recruit scholars, overseeing the commercialization of intellectual property, and financing development projects.

Just as he was learning the full implications of the act, Blair told the gathering at Kansas University’s Edwards Campus, he found himself telling applicants to explore its benefits.

“I tell them, ‘I’m not in the giving-you-money business,'” he said. “I tell them, ‘I’m in the grow-your-business-so-you-can-be-making-all-kinds-of-money business.'”

Blair said he attempted to relate to applicants what the authority could do other than dole out money. That could be introducing a company or entrepreneur to a top researcher at a state university or hiring one from an out of state institution, he said.

“We have to incent a climate that encourages entrepreneurship,” Blair said. “Every one of those professors has a good idea. We have to get through to them it’s OK to be entrepreneurs. It’s alright to make money.”

Another key is identifying the right niches for the state in the bioscience industry.

“We are a major player in animal research,” he said. “That’s a niche in the marketplace we could exploit. We can’t compete with California toe-to-toe. We have to look for niches where we can excel.”

Statewide and regional cooperation also would be an important factor in the authority’s success, Blair said. Economic development professionals in K-10 corridor cities must recognize a recruitment by a neighboring city could provide indirect economic benefits while helping build momentum for the region and state.

Ted Haggard, co-chairman of the Lawrence Biosciences Task Force, said the importance of regional cooperation was understood by his group.

There was concern the Growth Act’s benefits would be limited to the state’s larger cities, he said. But there could be other paybacks to the state’s rural areas.

“If you lived in western Kansas and had a child in the biosciences, the chances they would be working in your hometown would be slim,” he said. “But it could be some place in the state closer to it. That’s better than in Philadelphia or San Diego.”

But a looming decision about where to locate the authority’s headquarters could test statewide cooperation. The decision is about a year off, Blair said.

“We would expect it to be competitive,” he said.

K-10 Assn. director Rich Caplan reminded the gathering the association had proposed the Bioscience Authority’s headquarters be located in the corridor, which stretches from Lawrence to Overland Park. Four sites in Lenexa and Olathe have been proposed as the headquarters.

The DeSoto Explorer editor Elvyn J. Jones can be reached at (913) 585-1616.