Vulcan Inc.

Vulcan Inc.
Formation 1986 (1986)[1]
Founders
Type Private
Purpose Philanthropy, Entertainment, Technology, Investments, Real Estate, Spaceflight, Arts
Headquarters Seattle, Washington, United States
Area served
Worldwide
Owner Paul Allen
Key people
 Paul Allen, founder, chairman
Bill Hilf, CEO
Jody Allen, co-founder
Website Vulcan.com
Formerly called
 Vulcan Northwest

Vulcan Inc. is a privately held company founded by philanthropist, investor, and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Established in 1986, Vulcan oversees Allen's diverse business activities and philanthropic efforts—from sports teams, which include the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail Blazers to conservation projects such as the Great Elephant Census and business ventures like the Seattle Cinerama.

Headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

Vulcan Inc. Headquarters

Areas of Focus

Vulcan Real Estate

Vulcan's Real Estate division offers development and portfolio management services from site selection and urban planning to build-to-suit construction, leasing and asset repositioning. Vulcan has developed 6.6 million square feet of new residential, office, retail and biotechnology research space and has a total development capacity of 10,000,000 square feet (930,000 m2).[2]

Vulcan Real Estate is known for the redevelopment of the South Lake Union neighborhood immediately north of downtown Seattle and along the south shore of Lake Union. Several innovative companies in technology, life sciences, global health and business, are based in Vulcan developed properties.[3] More than $5.7 billion has been invested in the neighborhood since 2002 for development projects and public infrastructure improvements.

Vulcan advocated for the Seattle Streetcar line known as South Lake Union Streetcar, which runs from Seattle's Westlake Center to the south end of Lake Union. The Streetcar is a public and private partnership created through a Local Improvement District (LID) supported by businesses and residents along the line; The LID provided 50% of the funding while the remainder came from Federal and State sources with no city money used for its development costs.[4] The streetcar officially started operation on December 12, 2007. This development has been criticized as a city-supported real estate investment for Vulcan Inc.,[5] and concerns over the loss of low-income housing have been expressed.

In 2012, The Wall Street Journal called Allen's South Lake Union investment "unexpectedly lucrative" and one that led to his firm selling a 1,800,000 square feet (170,000 m2) office complex to Amazon.com for US$1.16 billion, one of the most expensive office deals ever in Seattle.[6] "It's exceeded my expectations," Mr. Allen said of the South Lake Union development.

In September 2014, Vulcan made a commitment to invest $200 million at Yesler Terrace where it would purchase three land parcels from the Seattle Housing Authority as part of an ambitious redevelopment plan for the 30-acre low-income housing site located southeast of downtown Seattle.[7]

Vulcan Capital

Formed in 2003, Vulcan Capital is the multibillion-dollar investment arm of Vulcan and is headquartered in Seattle with an additional office in Palo Alto.[8] Vulcan Capital invests in both private and public companies with a focus on making investments of $10 million to $100 million or more in companies mirroring the philanthropic approach of Paul Allen and Vulcan Inc. 4INFO, Alibaba Group, Charter Communications, DreamWorks, Magic Leap, Redfin and Tri Alpha Energy, Inc. are just some of the companies Vulcan Capital has invested in.[9][10]

Vulcan Sports and Entertainment

Vulcan Sports and Entertainment (VSE) is responsible for all financial and business operations of Allen's sports-related properties including the Portland Trail Blazers, the Seattle Seahawks, the Seattle Sounders and the Moda Center. In the fall of 2012, Peter McLoughlin was named CEO of Vulcan Sports and Entertainment after Tod Leiweke left the post to run the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Green Sports Alliance was conceived and founded by Vulcan Inc. and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Inaugural members and partners of the Alliance include the Seattle Seahawks, Portland Trail Blazers, Seattle Sounders FC. Green Sports Alliance Members have made a commitment to improve their environmental performance; reducing waste, conserving energy and water, and eliminating toxic chemicals, among many other ongoing initiatives and accomplishments.[11]

Research

Allen Brain Atlas

Both the Allen Institute for Brain Science and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence were incubated at Vulcan Inc. Started at Vulcan Inc. in 2001, the Allen Brain Atlas project sought to understand the connections between genes and brain functioning. From the project’s research, Paul Allen created the Allen Institute for Brain Science in 2003 with a $100 million donation.[12]

Project Halo came next. The project ran from 2002 to 2013, with the goal of creating a "digital Aristotle" that can correctly answer queries about scientific information, using artificial intelligence. The project led to a number of spinoff technologies, including the wiki software bundle SMW+, the Semantic Inferencing on Large Knowledge (SILK) project[13] and the Automated User-Centered Reasoning and Acquisition System (AURA).[14] From Project Halo’s results, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence was created.[15]

Museums

Media and entertainment

  • Seattle Cinerama:[16] A downtown Seattle theater with all the big-screen bells and whistles. Remodeled inside and out in 2014 to include digital laser projection and Dolby Atmos surround sound, 3D, high-frame-rate compatibility, and the ability to show 35mm and 70mm films.
  • The Hospital Club: In 2002, Paul Allen reopened the doors of the old St. Paul's Hospital in London's Covent Garden neighborhood, revealing a new 60,000-square-foot creative hub, providing a professional and social hub to those working in the film, television, music, advertising, contemporary art and design, publishing and journalism, interactive media, theatre and fashion industries.[17]
  • Vulcan Productions: Vulcan Productions produces films, digital programs and outreach initiatives designed to explore critical issues and inspire people to take action. Its programs have won numerous awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award, the Emmy Award, the Grammy Award and the Wildscreen Panda Award. Films and series from the documentary group include: Racing Extinction (2015); We the Economy (2014); Years of Living Dangerously (2014); Girl Rising (2013); This Emotional Life (2010); Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial (2007); Rx for Survival: A Global Health Challenge (2005); No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005); Strange Days on Planet Earth (2005); Black Sky: The Race For Space and Black Sky: Winning the X Prize (2004); Lightning in a Bottle (2004); The Blues (2003) and Evolution (2001).[18]

Technology

Vulcan, Inc. has also directly led some technology projects, including the following:

Wireless spectrum

Vulcan Spectrum, a branch of Vulcan, Inc., participated in the United States 2008 wireless spectrum auction, paying $69 million for "A Block" spectrum in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton area, and $43.6 million for "A Block" spectrum in Portland-Salem.[19]

Vulcan FlipStart

In 2003, Vulcan began developing the Vulcan FlipStart, a subnotebook with a 5.6-inch screen. The company began to manufacture and sell the FlipStart in March 2007, and ceased production in May 2008.[20]

Philanthropy

In 2014, Vulcan Inc. partnered with Elephants Without Borders to secure a $7.3 million grant to conduct the Great Elephant Census.[21] The census was designed to provide accurate and up-to-date data about the number and distribution of African elephants by using standardized aerial surveys of thousands of square miles. Prior to the survey, many countries had not conducted surveying flights in as many as 10 years. Dozens of researchers flying in small planes captured comprehensive observational data of elephants and elephant carcasses.[22] The census was completed in 2016, finding that elephant populations had declined by as much as 30 percent over the previous seven years as a result of poaching.[23]

In February 2016, Allen announced that Vulcan would donate $2 million in grants to stop the spread of the Zika virus.[24] Most of the funds went to mosquito control efforts in countries where the virus was quickly spreading, while the remainder was used to fund a diagnostic test.[25]

References

  1. ↑ "About - Vulcan". vulcan.com. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  2. ↑ ifthen.com. "About Us - Vulcan Real Estate". vulcan.com. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  3. ↑ Nick Timiraos. "A Look at Six U.S. Cities Pioneering New Economic Zones". WSJ.
  4. ↑ "Amazon plan adds more streetcar trips". The Seattle Times.
  5. ↑ "Venture Capital: Airplanes ... to antibodies". seattlepi.com.
  6. ↑ "Amazon to pay Vulcan $1.16B for headquarters campus in South Lake Union - Puget Sound Business Journal". Puget Sound Business Journal. 5 October 2012.
  7. ↑ "Vulcan to buy three blocks in Yesler Terrace". Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
  8. ↑ "Paul Allen's Vulcan Capital expanding to Silicon Valley". geekwire.com. 1 April 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  9. ↑ "Vulcan Capital | Crunchbase". Crunchbase. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  10. ↑ "Vulcan Capital Provides Seed to TriLinc for Global Impact Investments". Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  11. ↑ "ABOUT -". greensportsalliance.org.
  12. ↑ Weintraub, Arlene. "Paul Allen Just Made His Biggest Step Yet To Map The Human Brain". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  13. ↑ "The SILK Project: Semantic Inferencing on Large Knowledge". semwebcentral.org.
  14. ↑ "Automated User-Centered Reasoning and Acquisition System". Artificial Intelligence Center. SRI International. Retrieved 2013-06-13.
  15. ↑ Brandom, Russell (24 October 2013). "Paul Allen and the Machines: teaching the next generation of artificial intelligence". theverge.com. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  16. ↑ "If the New Cinerama Can't Save Movie Theaters, Nothing Can". The Stranger.
  17. ↑ "The Hospital Club". thehospitalclub.com.
  18. ↑ "Vulcan Productions". vulcanproductions.com.
  19. ↑ "Verizon Gets the "C" Block - dailywireless.org". dailywireless.org.
  20. ↑ Is FlipStart closing up shop?, Joshua Topolsky, Engadget, May 4, 2008
  21. ↑ "How Paul Allen's $7 Million and Big Data Are Combating Africa's Elephant Crisis". Mashable. 31 October 2014.
  22. ↑ "Great Elephant Census". Great Elephant Census.
  23. ↑ "Paul Allen's Great Elephant Census Confirms Catastrophic Decline in Africa". GeekWire. 31 August 2016.
  24. ↑ "Paul Allen Giving $2 Million in Effort to Help Fight Zika Virus Outbreak". GeekWire. 19 February 2016.
  25. ↑ "Philanthropist Paul Allen Announces $2 Million in Grants for Zika Diagnostic, Mosquito Control". The Washington Post. 19 February 2016.
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