Construction is set to begin this month on the first building of a planned research park on the Missouri University of Science and Technology campus.
Called Innovation Park, the facility will be located on the campus’ southwest corner. Missouri S&T recently awarded the design-build construction contract for the first building to Brinkmann Constructors. A Brinkmann construction trailer has been on-site for more than a week.
The building will be a single-story general office building with approximately 22,750-gross-square feet. It will be located on the northeastern corner of the research park on land that is currently part of the driving range of Missouri S&T’s golf course.
“The groundbreaking will be some time later this month,” said Keith Strassner, Director of Technology Transfer & Economic Development at Missouri University of Science and Technology.
“We’re very excited to be moving along on this project,” he said Friday.
The first building of Innovation Park will be, Strassner said, on the golf course driving range, near the site of the large tree on the range.
“I took the plans last week over to (Phelps County Regional Medical Center’s CEO) John Denbo, and he’s excited. It appears the building will be right across from his office,” Strassner said.
Strassner forwarded artists renderings and floor plans of the planned building.
When completed, the building will provide roughly 18,500-square-feet of office suites and shared office space for tenants. Construction is set to begin at the end of March with a completion target of October.
The concept for a research park on the campus of Missouri S&T has been a topic of discussion for more than 10 years. Missouri S&T Chancellor John F. Carney III formally proposed the idea in October 2006 and university officials presented a plan to the University of Missouri Board of Curators.
It was approved by the Curators at a meeting on the Missouri S&T campus in April 2007. After a series of public meetings with the city of Rolla and Phelps County to gather input to the research park master plan, all comments were gathered and sent to the Board of Curators, which approved the master plan and covenants for the research park in July 2007.
“In 2008, plans for Innovation Park were in danger of stalling because of the economic downturn,” said Strassner.
However, the effort picked up steam in June when University of Missouri System President Gary Forsee, a 1972 Missouri S&T graduate, asked Carney to assess the viability of using funds from the University of Missouri System’s construction financing bonds to fund the first facility. In August, the Curators provided approximately $3.25 million in bond funds to Missouri S&T to finance construction of the first building at Innovation Park.
