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Virginia Tech administrators and local politicians talked economic development as the university broke ground on the second phase of its Corporate Research Center Monday.
Speaking from a makeshift lectern in a pasture along Tech Center Drive, Blacksburg Mayor Ron Rordam spoke of how the center brought vitality into the community.
“These companies will set the standard for the future,” Rordam said.
The development of the second phase of the CRC was moved along by a $1.96 million grant to Tech and the town of Blacksburg by the Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The master plan for the second phase calls for the creation of 18 new buildings, adding 95 acres to the 120 used by the center’s first phase. The first phase currently houses more than 140 companies employing about 2,200 employees.
The expansion is also expected to bring in several thousand new jobs, with estimates from Monday’s ceremony at about 2,500 new workers.
The groundbreaking comes 25 years after the center’s establishment in 1985.
CRC president Joe Meredith, Tech treasurer Ray Smoot, Congressman Rick Boucher (D-9th district) and Tech President Charles Steger also spoke at Monday’s groundbreaking.
Steger said development for the center had reached “critical mass.”
“This is a record that we can bring new business and attract current business to Blacksburg and Montgomery County,” Steger said.
The Association of University Research Parks named the CRC the 2010 Outstanding Research Park.
Boucher called the center a “major engine of economic development in Southwest Virginia,” and told those in attendance that he looked forward to the creation of a third phase of the center.
The first task for center officials is creating the infrastructure for the new area. In addition to a new road, which will be named Innovation Drive, sewer and fiber optic capabilities are also on the agenda for
the center.
Meredith expects work to begin on the infrastructure by the end of October, with the construction taking about a year to complete.
A version of this article appeared in the Sep 21 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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