A new multi-tenant building, at 103 Innovation Boulevard, will be the next to go up in the Research Park at University 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 said design of the new building is under way and groundbreaking is set for 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 Blvd., reached full occupancy last year.
Don Mohnkern, Real Time Devices's secretary and treasurer, said the company decided to locate its corporate headquarters in the Research Park because it offers proximity to Penn State and room for expansion.
"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 in the Centre Region since its founding in the mid-1980s. Through a series of moves Real Time Devices eventually graduated to the status of anchor tenant in the CBICC's incubator program in the Technology Center at the Research Park.
Dave Tyler, CBICC vice president of economic development who manages the incubator program, said Real Time Devices's success as it progressed through the incubator programs and now its decision to stay in the area is an example of how the incubator program and the Research Park can work together to give new company's a foothold in the region.
Like the other buildings in the Research Park Phase 2, 103 Innovation Blvd. will be developed and owned by PSRP Developers Inc. 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.
Karen Dickinson, managing director of the Research Park, construction also will begin on a three-story, 47,000-square-foot building at 100 Innovation Blvd. ARIS Corp. of America is planning to occupy that building in late spring 2001. One remaining lot will be used for either a 25,000-square-foot expansion of the building at 100 Innovation Blvd. or a separate building, depending on need.