By J. Phillip Halstead, Ph.D.
Formerly known as the Union Carbide Technical Center, as well as $10 million in funding. Started in 1949 as the pioneering chemical manufacturer’s primary research facility, the tech center ultimately became the research home to some 3,000 scientists, engineers and technicians who developed tens of thousands of chemical manufacturing innovations and as many patents, many of which have had a marked impact on the products we use today.
Research investment and employment peaked in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Eventually the global chemical manufacturing market changed, ownership changed and so did Dow Chemical Company’s need for a major research center in the Kanawha Valley.
By 2010, there were still a few companies at the site of the tech center that were employing 550 people and paying an average salary of $81,000. Those jobs supported another 1,100 jobs in the area. The combined economic impact contributed $15 million in annual state tax revenues.
With the site facing closure, then-Governor Joe Manchin coordinated an effort of federal, state, community, education and business leaders to develop a plan to preserve those jobs and grow the facility as a new education, research and technology park. The West Virginia Legislature and Governor Earl Ray Tomblin then followed up by creating a nonprofit corporation to run the park.
As of December 15, 2011, the one-year anniversary of state ownership, WVRTP not only saved those 550 jobs but added 47 more. Ten more jobs were added this January and prospects are strong for new jobs every month as technology companies and others consider locating or expanding there.
The vision for the tech park is to go back to the future and use the site’s acreage and its 800,000 square feet of offices, laboratories and pilot plants to recreate an innovation factory modeled on the Union Carbide Technical Center. Turning this vision into reality is the job of a nine-member board of directors, staff and allies who are stewards of the WVRTP. This visionary team is working to mobilize a diversified multi-tenant research, development and commercialization park that will be the world’s friendly front door to chemical innovations.
The WVRTP has broad support from federal, state and local governments, corporate tenants and community and civic organizations, as evidenced by $59.5 million in public and private investments that are underway to revitalize office and laboratory spaces. While public investment has saved the park and initiated improvements, the park should be financially self-sustainable within five years.
The concept of the tech park as an innovation machine is embodied by the park’s own home-grown research firm, the Mid Atlantic Technology Research and Innovation Center (MATRIC). Since its founding in 2004, MATRIC has grown to more than 100 full-time employees and has spun out several companies, each with growth potential. With continued support and leadership, MATRIC and the WVRTP could one day resemble the Georgia Tech Research Institute and North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park Institute, both of which earn more than $2 billion in annual revenue, employ thousands of highly trained specialists and generate tremendous economic growth.
Focusing on energy, chemicals, materials and related technologies, the tech park is a joint campus for industrial companies, universities, community and technical colleges, researchers and others. One education organization and three higher education institutions are already taking advantage of what the park has to offer. The West Virginia Community & Technical College System is developing a strong presence to train technical specialists who are essential to running industrial processes. Construction is underway on a new $15 million Advanced Technology Center that will provide new facilities for technical education. The headquarters, classrooms and allied health labs of Kanawha Valley Community & Technical College will be located in newly renovated Building 2000 and classes will start in fall of 2012. A joint applied research center with the National Energy Technology Laboratory, West Virginia University and Marshall University is envisioned. The center may focus on new uses for ethane, coal and natural gas.
Elements of the ecosystem of innovation will also be located either in or near the tech park, such as business incubators, TechConnectWV, Chemical Alliance Zone, Charleston Area Alliance, West Virginia Angel Network, Small Business Development Center and The Real West Virginia Foundation.
Containing 240 chemical workstations with vented fume hoods and four large-scale pilot plants for scaling up production to industrial quantities, the WVRTP offers a unique selling proposition. Any chemical company and university in the world conducting chemical research is a potential user of the tech park’s research and pilot plant scale-up facilities. The location certainly doesn’t hurt, either. With Interstate 64 on the developed side of the park, Corridor G on the undeveloped side and Jefferson Road on a third side, the WVRTP is strategically located. It is one mile from downtown South Charleston and five miles from downtown Charleston.
As existing buildings are renovated and repopulated, the number of high-paying jobs will grow, and three of the existing buildings are already seeing progress and the promise of future tenants.
Building 2000, an x-shaped, 200,000-square-foot, four-story structure undergoing a $26 million renovation will continue to house Dow employees as well as serve as classrooms and offices for Kanawha Valley Community & Technical College. Building 770, a 130,000-square-foot, five-story building housing 120 chemical workbenches with vented fume hoods will be updated to house MATRIC and the West Virginia Department of Agriculture’s research and testing laboratories. A $5.25 million Economic Development Administration grant matched by the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission is helping pay for this renovation. Building 740, a 131,000-square-foot, five-story building that has 120 chemical work benches with vented fume hoods will be updated to house new science and technology tenants. Two of the four pilot plants are also currently being used by Dow and Bayer. With MATRIC in the lead, efforts are underway to recruit new business to reactivate the two idle pilot plants.
The tech park site has a history of tremendous innovation. Our new vision is nothing less than to create a future based on those past achievements, and beyond.
