Research park plans new unit
BYLINE: Staff Reports
The previously announced Venture II building planned for the Oklahoma Technology and Research Park now has a design and designated size, officials said Thursday.
The proposed multitenant office and laboratory building will be 46,000 square feet and will be across from the 36,000-square-foot Venture I building on the research park campus.
It will provide office and lab space to industry partners of Oklahoma State University involved in collaborative research and new product development.
Venture II will be developed by IDEA Partnerships, development partner with the Joint Board of the research park.
Development costs of the project were not released, but the Venture I building was a $5.5 million project when built in 2005.
OSU has a number of sensor-related laboratories in Venture I and, with the addition of Venture II, will have a complex providing cutting-edge research and development opportunities for the university and its private sector partners.
"Collaborative relationships of OSU with private technology companies can benefit all of Oklahoma's citizens because it is from these kinds of partnerships that the new products and new companies are formed," said Stephen McKeever, OSU's vice president for research and technology transfer.
"Venture II will provide even more facilities in which those collaborations can occur and will help seed Oklahoma with new jobs and industry."
The park is a joint venture of the city of Stillwater, Meridian Technology Center and OSU.
The 160-acre site is on the west side of Stillwater adjacent to the Meridian center.
The Park is home to OSU sensor labs, along with the OSU Electron Microscopy suite, in Venture I, and three private research companies: Nomadics Inc., ERIL Research, and Lucas Newman Science and Technologies. Additional OSU labs are expected to move to Venture I in July.
"The plans for Venture II, along with the construction of the Morgan Accelerator Building, signal a bright and busy future for the technology park," said Andrea Kelly, chairman of the Joint Board and chief executive officer of the Meridian center.
The Research Park is master-planned for 1 million square feet of lab and support space for high-tech companies, OSU research facilities, and supporting services.
Tenant companies eventually are expected to employ more than 2,000 people in the Stillwater region.