Development of the Innovation Park at Missouri University of Science and
Technology is progressing, and hopes are that ground will be broken on the
site’s first building by summer 2008.

Keith Strassner, director of the technology transfer and economic
development office at Missouri S&T, says a phase-one environmental study
currently is being conducted on the 56-acre site where the Missouri S&T
golf course now sits. Strassner says the study, as well as property appraisals,
should be completed by mid-to-late January.

“These are two key pieces of information we need before development can
proceed,” Strassner says.

Missouri S&T also is in negotiations with several developers interested
in building in the Innovation Park.

“We’re still in the discussion and negotiation phases,” Strassner says. “We
are also actively marketing the park in conjunction with Rolla Regional
Economic Commission. As we have said, this will be a long, well-thought process
that will take years before it’s finished.”

Strassner says he believes that ground will be broken on a 30,000 square
foot building in June. He says the building will contain mostly office space,
and may also include space for computer labs, as well as space available for
rent to other companies interested in locating in the park. All of this must be
approved by the University of Missouri Board of Curators and the developers
with which Missouri S&T is in negotiations.

Missouri S&T also hopes to construct a business accelerator in the park.
The accelerator will be a space in which new businesses can develop and
grow.

"Our goal all along has been to try and raise private, federal and
perhaps state funds to do that, and that remains our goal,” Strassner says.

In line with Missouri S&T Chancellor John F. Carney III’s green
initiative, announced during his State of the University Address on Dec. 3,
2007, the Innovation Park is being designed to include as much green space as
possible.

“We’ve designed the park to minimize the environmental impact, and we would
encourage those who want to put a building on the site to think green,”
Strassner says.

Plans for Missouri S&T’s Innovation Park were approved April 6, 2007 by
the University of Missouri Board of Curators. An analysis of the park’s
economic impact estimates the site will bring $43.49 million in general revenue
to the state during the next 12 years, as well as $822.24 million in new
personal income to Missourians.

The park also is expected to create 1,026 new jobs annually, with an average
wage of $41,644 per job.