Innovation Park Phase 3 Groundbreaking Set
December 11, 2003
University Park, Pa. -- Dr. Eva J. Pell, president of the Research Park Management Corp., will welcome guests at a groundbreaking ceremony, Monday, Dec. 15, at 10:30 a.m. to mark the start of the first building in Phase 3 of Innovation Park at Penn State.
The ceremony will take place at the gateway to Phase 3 on the western end of the park. Speakers at the event will include: Pell, who is also Penn State vice president for research and dean of the graduate school, Dr. Robert Capretto of Innovation Capital Partners and Jack Norris of CB Richard Ellis. Karen Dickinson, Innovation Park director, will serve as master of ceremonies.
Innovation Capital Partners (ICP), a real estate development partnership, is developing Phase 3, which includes the remaining 75 acres in the western part of the 118 acre Innovation Park site. The development team includes CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), a global real estate services firm, and L. Robert Kimball and Associates, a full-service architectural and engineering design firm.
The new building, 328 Innovation Boulevard, will be a three-story, 75,000-square-foot, mixed use, multi-tenant facility. The building will incorporate high performance mechanical and electrical systems in a raised-floor design. The project also includes an 800-foot extension of Innovation Boulevard, which will provide access to four building sites in Phase 3. The new building will be available for occupancy in August 2004. Poole Anderson will manage construction.
Three tenants have signed leases for space in the new facility. They include BlueSwarf.com (www.blueswarf.com), which provides software and services to the machine tool industry for selecting, quoting, ordering and assembly of turnkey tooling packages; L. R. Kimball and Associates (www.lrkimball.com); and Gateway Management Company, which provides business advisory, accounting and legal services and includes Alpha Source Universities, a full service procurement consulting company that uses a new and unique business model and proprietary software to host real time competitive bidding opportunities for goods and services.
The University's Board of Trustees adopted Innovation Park at Penn State as a phased-development project in 1987 to assist in the economic revitalization of the Commonwealth.
Karen Dickinson, park director, says, "Currently, there are 40 tenants at Innovation Park employing more than 1,000 people. In addition, park tenants have actively participated in Penn State's internship program with over half hiring student interns. Park tenants hired more than 26 Penn State graduates last year.
Phase 1 of Innovation Park includes the Penn State Conference Center and Hotel currently undergoing expansion; the Materials Research Institute Building; Daybridge Child Care Center and the Technology Center Building, which is also undergoing expansion. The Technology Center Building houses the Centre County Chamber of Business and Industry business incubator and the University's industrial outreach and technology transfer programs.
Phase 2, begun in 1997, includes two fully occupied multi-tenant buildings developed by PSRP Developers. A third building, the Outreach Innovation Building, is currently under construction. It will house Penn State Public Broadcasting and the World Campus.
A complete list of the companies located at Innovation Park at Penn State is at http://www.innovationpark.psu.edu/companies.html
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