MIAMI-When Jones Lang LaSalle was named exclusive leasing agent for the University of Miami Life Science & Technology Park in August, Richard Schuchts, a senior vice president in the firm's Miami office, set his mind to educate a market on the growing opportunity.

Although Miami is home to more than 1,700 life sciences companies, including industry leaders like Boston Scientific, Cordis, and Schering-Plough Stiefel Laboratories, the UM Life Science & Technology center will christen Miami as a bona fide cluster when the first 252,000-square-foot phase one building is completed in mid-2011.

GlobeSt.com caught up with Schuchts to talk about the challenges of introducing a new sector into a market, how the project has stretched him as a broker, how other brokers can get involved in the life sciences niche, and more.