Ground broken for new USTAR building
USU broke ground last week on a $60 million USTAR, Utah Science Technology and Research, facility located at the Innovation Campus. Announced last October by USU President Stan Albrecht, Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr. and USU Vice President of Strategic Ventures and Economic Development Ned Weinshenker, the 110,000 square foot, three story, LEED-Certified facility will house USU researchers in the life sciences and advances USTAR’s purpose of stimulating the local economy through the creation of high-paying, high-tech jobs.
“USTAR targets creating jobs that pay two to three times the county average,” Weinshenker said.
Since the Utah State Legislature passed Senate Bill 75 in March 2006, the USTAR initiative has funded development of positions and facilities at the University of Utah and Utah State University. The overall budget of $200 million is divided into categories and between the two universities.
“It’s $200 million in pieces,” Weinshenker said. “There’s $15 million a year for hiring of research faculty and teams. Of that, six goes to Utah State and nine to University of Utah. As far as funding for facilities there’s $60 million from the state and we had to match $10 million of that from non-state sources.”
To raise the matching funds USU donated the old Space Dynamics building, appraised at roughly $10 million, to USTAR.
“What people have to realize is that money from USTAR doesn’t come from the higher education budget,” Weinshenker said. “The state expects to see a direct return on investment on that money. It’s not how many papers we get published, it’s the number of new jobs and their average salary, it’s how many patent applications and invention disclosures we get and turn into marketable developments.”
Technological development results in inventions and spin-off corporations which lead to an associated increase in the tax base. This meets both educational and economic goals, Weinshenker said.
That’s where the location, at the heart of USU’s Innovation Campus, is so important, he said. Office buildings will surround the new facility, ready to capture spin-off businesses, Weinshenker said.
“All the key elements to see that this runs smoothly from construction to having marketable products are under one umbrella,” Weinshenker said.
Another advantage of the Innovation Campus is that there’s space. The University of Utah’s USTAR facility will uproot the U’s on-campus golf course, Weinshenker said.
“Here at USU no one’s complaining about where we’re putting the building,” he said.
Along with the as yet unnamed research facilities, USTAR is already funding six major research efforts at Utah State including research in biofuels, upper atmosphere weather prediction and digital 3-D imaging.
“It’s being on the cutting edge of all these projects,” Weinshenker said.
–benabbott@aggiemail.usu.edu