New Park Geared Toward Clean-Energy, High-Tech Ventures
Published Oct 22, 2009
With strong support from local municipalities, the business community and economic-development officials, the Next Generation Park is set to usher in a new era of high-tech innovation throughout The Research Valley.
The industrial park’s goal is to become a hub for companies focusing on clean energy and other innovative sectors, and it was made possible after The Research Valley Partnership was able to bring in funding from Bryan and College Station and Brazos County.
The three governments’ buy-in was key to making the park happen, says Todd McDaniel, president and chief executive officer of The Research Valley Partnership. He credits all the players with looking to the future in terms of generating local jobs.
“Everyone had the patience and the vision to work through the process,” McDaniel says. “It’s called Next Generation for a reason. Whether companies are involved in clean energy, or life science, or something related, they can co-locate in an ambience that is truly world class. We think this campus is going to be a new model for industrial parks; that’s really our objective.”
Early goals are to create at least 200 jobs and then build upward. The park will have first-refusal option on more acreage nearby, allowing it to grow to at least 1,000 acres over time. That kind of land bank is necessary, as McDaniel predicts the properties will be snapped up in large chunks.
“The vision is to have a world-class park in the shadow of Texas A&M University, and to have rail and other necessary amenities,” he says. “We think we nailed down the best location.”
And despite the current slow economy, the park should be a draw for new and existing companies alike, says Tom Wilkinson Jr., executive director of the Brazos Valley Council of Governments.
“The failure to have opportunities for businesses means they’ll look elsewhere,” Wilkinson says. “We are out of industrial property in the county, and so we’re creating a new opportunity for both industrial and research types of businesses.”
Wilkinson, McDaniel and Shannon Waddell, economic and community development program manager for the Brazos Valley Council of Governments, use their work with Arena Clean Energy to assist with marketing and development to showcase how the new park’s public/private business model could work.
“This park will bring together several concepts that will all be growing and expanding,” Waddell says. “We’re going to have clean and sustainable energy companies, but we’ll also attract other research-type emerging companies and some in tech transfer. Eventually we’ll have incubator space, so we’ll have a lot to capitalize on.”
The all-encompassing nature of the park may well be its strongest selling point in the end, notes Wilkinson.
“We now can say we have land ready to go, so pick which piece works best for you,” he says. “And they’ll have rail access in a master-planned park, and they can locate next to people who can be doing things that they’ll need. It’s very innovative, and even in a slow economy we already have some very solid prospects.”
Story by Joe Morris
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