{"id":69799,"date":"2012-12-07T09:26:42","date_gmt":"2012-12-07T14:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=69799"},"modified":"2012-12-31T09:07:55","modified_gmt":"2012-12-31T14:07:55","slug":"university-unveils-master-plan-for-technology-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/12\/university-unveils-master-plan-for-technology-park\/","title":{"rendered":"University Unveils Master Plan for Technology Park"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mary<\/a>
Mary Holz-Clause, vice president for economic development, discusses plans for the new technology park at the Student Union Theatre on Dec. 6. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Members of the UConn community and the town of Mansfield recently got their first look at the plans for UConn\u2019s ambitious new technology park, which is envisioned as an important driver of both research and economic growth in the region.<\/p>\n

In presentations at the Student Union and at Mansfield Town Hall on Dec. 6, University officials and a team from the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill unveiled the master plan for the long-sought University of Connecticut Technology Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a hope for some time, and it will soon become a reality,\u201d said Mary Holz-Clause, the University\u2019s vice president for economic development. \u201cThe Tech Park will be another way to use the strength of the University of Connecticut as a research institution to feed innovation and create jobs both in the region and throughout the state in the years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan calls for the park to be built on a portion of the University known as North Campus, which is bounded by Route 44, Route 195, and North Eagleville Road. An initial facility of 125,000 square feet, the Innovation Partnership Building, is expected to be completed in 2015, and will feature research equipment, flexible-use laboratories, and business incubator space.<\/p>\n

The ultimate goal is to design about 900,000 square feet of building space divided into three \u201cnodes\u201d of several buildings each, connected by footpaths and by the extension of North Hillside Road to Route 44, which will create a new entrance to campus The plan is to leave much of the area\u2019s existing green space intact, while designing a technology park that\u2019s in harmony with its environment, said Mark Regulinski, managing director of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe University has an asset in North Campus that makes it fundamentally different from many tech parks around the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The first building is being funded by an allocation of $170 million in state bonds, an effort championed and led by Senate President Donald Williams (D-Brooklyn) and Rep. Gregg Haddad (D-Mansfield), with the support of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe University and our visionary partners in state government know the UConn Technology Park will be critical for boosting the whole state economy,\u201d Holz-Clause said.<\/p>\n

\"Mun<\/a>
Mun Choi, interim provost, said the kind of work envisioned for the tech park includes additive manufacturing, nanotechnology, genomics, and digital innovation. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A feasibility analysis by a tech park consulting firm estimated that the park will create between 1,000 and 1,300 jobs in its first decade. The average salary at similar technology parks around the country is roughly $75,000.<\/p>\n

The technology park is the logical next step for a university that\u2019s rapidly cementing its reputation as a top research institution, said Mun Choi, interim provost, noting that UConn faculty members won more than $220 million in research awards in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re already a great research university,\u201d Choi said, \u201cbut we want to expand our opportunities to work even more closely with increasing numbers of industry partners.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 8,000 companies are within two hours\u2019 drive from UConn that are doing the kind of work envisioned for the tech park, including additive manufacturing, nanotechnology, genomics, and digital innovation, he added.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Choi said, the goal is for the project not just to attract partnerships and faculty from the region, but to draw innovative companies and researchers from around the globe to Storrs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to bring in partners who want to come to this University because of the resources we have and the skills of our faculty and students,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UConn community and the town of Mansfield recently got a first look at plans for the new tech park, which is expected to help drive innovation and economic growth in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":69797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[131],"class_list":["post-69799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 19:44:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69799"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69857,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69799\/revisions\/69857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/69797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69799"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=69799"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=69799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}