State economic development officials are in talks with private investors to build new laboratory space to help the New Haven area’s biotech industry grow.

Lab space is at a premium in New Haven thanks to the biotech firms spinning off of Yale University. However, rents are currently too low to support new private construction, industry watchers have told The Commercial Record. A recent lab expansions offers an example: a Branford-based firm resorted to converting an existing industrial building in that town after finding no suitable space on offer.

A spokesperson for Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner David Lehman confirmed the discussions, first reported by the Hartford Business Journal.

The lab or labs would be a public-private venture, with the state funding part of the cost. However, the state is taking a limited, targeted approach to economic development as part of Gov. Ned Lamont’s efforts to rein in what he sees as the state’s excessive reliance on borrowing and debt to fuel economic development efforts.