ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 23, 1996 TAG: 9601230018
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
The manicured grounds and austere brick buildings of Virginia Tech's Corporate Research Center may be tucked away from the rest of campus, but it has made a mark in its 10 years of existence.
Since the first building opened in 1988, the research center has grown to include more than 50 companies that together employ 800 people, putting the center on the map as a significant economic developer in Montgomery County.
The center also made a $91,000 profit during the fiscal year 1994-95, its first-ever surplus.
The challenge during the next 10 years is to bring in larger tenants and compete with the more than 130 university research centers and other science and technology parks throughout the country.
"The biggest challenge for us is to get the message to the national work force that we're here," said Joe Meredith, Corporate Research Center president.
Tech's master plan for the center calls for approximately 15 more buildings, with up to 3,000 people eventually working for businesses here, Meredith said. There are currently eight buildings, all filled to capacity. The next building, scheduled to open in the fall of 1996, will house the Waste Policy Institute's corporate offices and Blacksburg operations.
Companies within the research center range from software development to pharmaceutical research. Tech faculty members started 45 percent of the businesses, many as spinoffs from research conducted at the university.
Meredith can recall only one business that has failed and another that relocated from the research center. In-house support is provided, including an on-site bank and equipment rental at reduced costs. A business technology center also helps companies put together plans for marketing and strategic planning.
"The advantage of the high number of companies is economic diversity," Meredith said. "If a particular market sector were to downsize or cut back ... it reduces our overall risk of someone changing plans or not doing well in the overall market."
Eventually, the center would like to bring in a major federal agency as a tenant and attract more established corporate development research, said Ray Smoot, chairman of the center's board of directors and Tech's vice president for finance.
"Ten years ago, that whole place out there was literally a cow pasture," Smoot said. "It has really developed quickly and I think the reason it has developed so quickly is the nature of the research at the university. The research has a very practical or applied [nature]."
When the research center was incorporated in 1985, Meredith said, the idea was for the companies to develop products that could then be manufactured outside of the center. In the years that followed, however, few companies have fit that model.
"I think a lot of people in the economic development community are disappointed that that has not happened," said Meredith, who added that the products produced at the center cannot be manufactured on a mass scale.
"It appears it's not going to happen," he added. "I don't think it's something to apologize for, it's just the nature of the technology Virginia Tech is good at."
The center ranks 45th in the nation for research and development expediters and 16th for industry-funded research. The Virginia Tech Foundation has invested $21 million in land purchases, infrastructure and construction, primarily to enhance Tech's research mission, Smoot said.
Creating educational opportunities for students; jobs for faculty, staff and graduating students; and economic development for western Virginia were also considerations, he added. In the long-term view, the hope is the center will generate money for Tech.
"Yes, it is beginning to do that," Smoot said. "When I say long-term view, I mean longer than 10 years."
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Meredithby CNB