Officials conducted the groundbreaking ceremony for a new multi-tenant building at the Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park on Thursday. Sen. Thad Cochran, along with Mississippi State University and Oktibbeha County officials, participated in the ceremony for the new, unnamed facility.
Construction for the $8 million, 42,000-square-foot building will begin in March and should be completed within nine to 12 months. Schafer and Associates has been contracted as architect for the facility.
The research park is home to 1,500 workers, many of whom are MSU employees, and the new multi-tenant building will increase the capacity by 100 to 150 more. The building is expected to be at full occupancy when it opens.
Vice president for research and economic development Kirk Schulz said the tenants of the research park allow MSU students to have a career in engineering and technology without leaving the state.
“We are very excited about the future of the park, the future of Mississippi State and the role it’s going to play in economic development and in the partnerships that we have with the county and the city,” Schulz said.
Jack Wallace, chairman of the Oktibbeha County Economic Development Authority and MSU graduate, gave a brief address pointing out that the ceremony was spared from the rain predicted that afternoon prior to Schulz introducing Cochran.
Cochran said he is committed to promoting all levels of education throughout Mississippi.
“I’m an equal opportunity appropriator,” he said to the crowd gathered under the large white tent among the rolling hills of the park that bears his name. “Mississippi has so many needs and could use the support of the federal government in so many different areas that it is important to not leave any area unexplored.”
Cochran said he considered the new building to be representative of the progress.
“We’re here to establish another place where those who are interested in turning what you find in the laboratories at Mississippi State University or through the research that’s done here into practical applications that create new jobs, new businesses … with more opportunity in our state and beyond,” he said.
New research park tenants will include the National Strategic Planning and Analysis Research Center; nCode, a group which works with Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems and the defense industry to provide rugged data analysis processing equipment; Camgian Microsystems, a manufacturer of ultra-low power wireless micro-systems and sensors; InfiniSat, a manufacturer of small inexpensive satellites and the Office of Technology Commercialization, a campus group that helps small businesses with patents and technology development.
ClearOrbit, a supply chain software manufacturer, will move out of a temporary location in the park into the new building.
The first multi-tenant building in the research park opened in the late 1980s, and after the new facility is built, MSU has plans to build a third multi-tenant building adjacent to the new one. The park occupies 272 acres just north of campus.