New Multi-Tenant Building Nearing Start At Penn State Research Park

February 17, 2000

University Park, Pa. --- A new multi-tenant building, at 103 Innovation Boulevard, will be the next to go up in Penn State's Research Park.

Real Time Devices USA Inc., currently a commercial tenant in the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County (CBICC) business incubator at the Technology Center, has signed a lease for 12,000 square feet of the first-floor West Wing of the new two-story, 40,080-square-foot building.

Arthur M. Heim, head of Penn State's Industrial Research Office and leader of Park tenant development, says, "Design of the new building is underway and groundbreaking will occur in April."

The new building will be the second to go up in Phase 2 of the Park. The first Phase 2 building, the Lubert Building at 101 Innovation Boulevard, reached full occupancy last year.

Don Mohnkern, Real Time Devices' secretary and treasurer, said the company decided to locate its corporate headquarters in the Research Park because it offers proximity to Penn State and the room for expansion the company needs at this time.

"It's also a premier piece of real estate," he added.

The company, which has 32 employees and $6 million in annual sales including subsidiaries in Finland and Budapest, has been located in the Centre Region since its founding. The company started out in the mid-1980s in the incubator in the former Matternville School, migrated to another incubator facility on East Marylyn Avenue and to the CBICC incubator space in Penn State's Barbara Building shortly thereafter. In 1993, the company graduated out of incubator status and became an anchor tenant in CBICC's incubator program in the Technology Center building in the Research Park.

Dave Tyler, CBICC vice president of economic development who manages the incubator program, says, "Real Time Devices' success as it progressed through our incubator programs and its recent decision to stay in the area and locate in Penn State's Research Park is a model of how our incubator program and the Research Park can work together to help a company get started and then graduate to a permanent location. It demonstrates that the partnership between the CBICC and Penn State can help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and become an important asset for our local economy."

Like the other buildings in the Research Park Phase 2, 103 Innovation Boulevard will be developed and owned by PSRP Developers Inc. The partners in PSRP include William C. Morlok, president of Morlok Development Group of Philadelphia, and Galen Dreibelbis, State College businessman, real estate developer and president of G. Edwards Co., and Penn State Trustee Ira Lubert, president and principal owner of IL Management Inc. a marketing/consulting firm.

Other development team members include GBQC Architects, Gannett Fleming Engineers, and Poole Anderson Construction based in Huntingdon. Gannett Fleming is also a tenant in the Research Park in 101 Innovation Boulevard. PNC Bank and Omega Bank are arranging construction financing.

Morlok notes, "We carry out all development activities, space programming, design, documentation, permitting and construction of custom tenant improvements. Our team can even specify furniture and other systems, allowing the tenant to stay focused on the core business, not the real estate."

Karen Dickinson, managing director of the Penn State Research Park, says the developers will also begin construction of a three-story, 47,000-square-foot building at 100 Innovation Boulevard. ARIS Corporation of America is planning to occupy that building in late spring 2001. She adds that the one remaining lot will be used for either a 25,000-square-foot expansion of the building at 100 Innovation Boulevard or a separate building, depending on need.

Phase 2 in Penn State's Research Park was begun on Aug. 29, 1997 with a groundbreaking ceremony. All buildings are designed to conform to building and landscape design standards that maintain the character of the Park. Parking areas are landscaped with forsythia and maples. A courtyard area between the existing Lubert Building and the new building at 103 Innovation Boulevard will be landscaped with trees and park and picnic benches to create attractive, useable outdoor space for tenants and create a campus-like environment.

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Contacts:

Barbara Hale (814) 865-9481 (o)/ (814) 238-0997 (h)

Vicki Fong (814) 865-9481 (o)/ (814) 238-1221 (h)

EDITORS: Karen Dickinson is at (814) 865-5925 or by email. Don Mohnkern is (814) 234-8087 or by email.