ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997 TAG: 9704070009
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
Two more buildings are going up at Virginia Tech's Corporate Research Center - the latest developments in the center's rapid and continuing growth.
Eventually, officials anticipate 1 million square feet of space for 3,000 employees.
The industries in the research center's nine buildings employ more than 1,000 workers doing all those things that are buzzwords on Wall Street - biotechnology, polymers, aerospace, information technology. And even things that sound like buzzwords of the future, such as computational fluid dynamics analyses.
A subsidiary of the company that made headlines cloning sheep is there. A company inventing an environmentally friendly cockroach pesticide, and a company creating a nontoxic alternative to mercury are there. Companies making web pages, robots and laser equipment are there.
In all 65 companies are using the research center, including IBM, Blacksburg NEXRAD Weather Service and Enviro-Tech Mid-Atlantic.
The new buildings will provide room for some of these companies to grow and new companies to move in. The nine existing buildings have more than 250,000 square feet of space.
Building 10 is expected to be completed
by fall. The 39,000-square-foot structure will provide non-laboratory space for multiple tenants.
Building 11 is being built for VTLS, a library automation products developer and marketer that is already a tenant of the park. The 32,000-square-foot building should be finished by year's end. VTLS has established a web site to show an up-to-the-minute photo of progress on the building (www.vtls.com/vtlssite.html).
All of this is part of the current master plan - a more ambitious document than original plans made a decade ago.
"If you talked to people who were there in the early '80s, the research center has far surpassed their dreams, said Director Joe Meredith
The site just off the U.S. 460 Bypass near the Blacksburg airport has attracted tenants from close to home and across the country. Some of the companies were born out of research at Virginia Tech; others have been attracted to the center because of the special opportunities it offers.
The center provides more than just space, said Meredith.
The many links to the university offer endless research possibilities. There are training opportunities, shared equipment, conference rooms, faculty privileges and a program that helps the companies raise capital.
Meredith even works to find customers for the businesses in the center.
"We are strong advocates for the companies that are here," he said. "What we are really about is trying to come up with programs that will benefit the companies that are here."
Meredith believes one of the biggest benefits is the special atmosphere at the research center.
"One of the things I look for is synergy between companies at the park," he said. "It's sort of more of a collaborative environment."
The environment should be good for the employees as well as the companies, in order to attract the brightest workers, said Meredith.
"These are high-quality jobs, what you would call knowledge-worker jobs." The Corporate Research Center means that Virginia Tech graduates don't have to take their diplomas and run, he said.
"What we're trying to accomplish here is to provide a high-tech employment opportunity for people who graduate from Tech and want to stay here. We're trying to do things that will appeal to young knowledge-workers so they'll want to come work here."
The center also employs construction workers and service personnel. All of this puts more money into the local economy, said Meredith.
He also thinks the research center has some protection from economic downturns because it isn't dependent on one anchor industry.
"We don't have all of our eggs in anybody's basket," he said.
The center does rely heavily on computer and telecommunications companies, of which there are 24. There are six electronics companies, five biotechnology companies, four materials and chemistry companies and many others related to business assistance, environment and transportation.
Meredith thinks there is great potential in the transportation research field because of the center's proximity to the proposed "smart" road, a proposed road from Blacksburg to Interstate 81 where automotive technology will be tested.
The profits made by the Corporate Research Center are being reinvested in infrastructure, said Meredith. Decisions about the future of the center are made by a board of directors comprising senior university officials and presidents of private companies. This creates a good balance, Meredith said, between the educational aspects of the university and the commercial aspects of the industries involved.
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: VIRGINIA TECH. Building 10 is expected to be completedby CNBby fall. The 39,000-square-foot structure will provide office space
for multiple tenants. color.
TOM ANGLEBERGER/THE ROANOKE TIMES