A groundbreaking event was held Friday for a new building that marks a first — in several ways — for Penn State and Innovation Park.
The new building at 310 Innovation Boulevard comes as a result of a partnership the university announced last year with Morgan Advanced Materials, a U.K-based company that does global work in engineered carbon and ceramic materials. The partnership established the Carbon Science Center of Excellence (COE), Morgan’s first such center in North America and one designed to create global developments in carbon research through materials and application engineering.
The COE will occupy 10,800 square feet of the 27,500 square foot building.
Neil Sharkey, Penn State vice president for research, said the model of developing the building with an industry partner is a new one for the university.
‘A whole host of people worked really hard to make this happen because we hadn’t done it before,’ Sharkey said. ‘I’m hoping we’ve now greased those skids and we’ll fill up this building.’
The effort to bring in the new research and development center is the first global industrial partnership of Invent Penn State, the university’s program to spur economic development, job creation and student career success by leveraging Penn State’s resources and community and business collaborations.
Sharkey said in the past the university hasn’t always done as well as it could to advance its vast amount of intellectual property and capacity through partnerships with the private sector, but that has changed with new initiatives over the past several years.
He added that Innovation Park was a natural fit for the new building.
‘We need buildings like this,’ he said. ‘We can do R&D not just office space in this park. The original intention of Innovation Park was to innovate, and that’s exactly what is going to happen [here] in the not too distant future.’
Mike Murray, Morgan’s chief technology officer, said the company and Penn State have already made strides since announcing their partnership last year.
‘We’ve really made great progress building some great, strong collaborations between our organizations,’ Murray said. ‘We’ve already started working on a few initial projects aimed at redeveloping the understanding of material science that we need. Already before the building we’re getting some really interesting and tremendous results.’
He added that working with the university and developing the new COE is a key for Morgan’s goal to be a leader in material science and creating innovative advancements.
‘It’s the partnership we’re developing with Penn State that’s going to allow us to get there,’ he said.
GLP Development is leading the building project, which will have flexible space for research and laboratories, offices and light assembly. It’s the fifth facility developed by GLP at Innovation Park. Its affiliates own Buildings 328, 329, 331 and 330, and with the new building the company will have invested nearly $70 million in the park, according to founder and chair Erwin Greenberg.
‘We’re honored to be a part of it,’ Greenberg said.
Robert Barron, CEO of GLP, explained that the new building’s design will be a first for the park. It will be one floor but that the exterior will be 22 feet high so it appears to be two stories. The building will be 330 feet long along the boulevard and 90 feet deep.
The new building will bring Innovation Park to 1 million square feet of developed property. The park is designated for 1.4 million square feet of building. Greenberg said talks have been ongoing about how the remaining 400,000 square feet may be developed.
Vern Squier, president and CEO of the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County (CBICC), said the investment by an international company and the potential for other businesses in the building will be significant for the region.
‘Morgan’s investment is going to pay off for us in the way of new jobs, homes purchased and intellectual property developed over time,’ Squier said, adding that Morgan has been helping to recruit other companies to the building.
Centre County, State College, Ferguson Township, Patton Township, College Township, Halfmoon Township, Spring Township, Bellefonte and the Governor’s Action Team all also worked to help make the partnership and new facility possible, Squier said.
‘The dedication of partnership, energy and commitment to improving our local economy on a county and local basis and for the region is so important,’ he said.
Joining officials in the groundbreaking were members of Centre County 4-H Robotics, who operated a robot that participated in the ceremonial dig.
The building is expected to open in December.
Clayco Inc. is contractor on the project, working with architect Forum Studios. CBRE Inc. is project manager Sweetland Engineering & Associates, Barton Associates and Hope Furrer Associates are engineers. Leasing is being handled by Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. Building operations will be managed by Property Management, Inc..
