Boston 'Innovation District' startups eligible for $25k awards

By D.C. Denison, Globe Staff

Boston mayor Thomas M. Menino told a business breakfast audience this morning that the city intends to develop 1,000 acres on the South Boston waterfront and the Marine Industrial Park into an "Innovation District," and that the venture capital firm Spencer Trask & Co. will be holding a startup competition starting in July that will award the winner $25,000 to locate a business in that part of the city.

Menino revealed the award during his keynote speech at the annual "Globe 100" breakfast at the New England XPO for Business conference in the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. In addition, Menino said that Spencer Trask would make "a standing $25,000 award" the following year to an Innovation District business to help it grow.

The mayor, who was part of a panel discussion on the future of Boston business, also said that he will lead a tour of university and hospital presidents and their real estate staffs of the South Boston "innovation district" this summer. During the tour, Menino said he will highlight two specific parcels in the Marine Industrial Park that are will be open for requests for proposals "real soon."