Jordan Valley Innovation Center: SMSU, city may transform MFA into high-tech center

by Paul Schreiber

SBJ Reporter

pschreiber@sbj.net

By the end of 2005, the former MFA Milling Center at 524 N. Boonville could become the Jordan Valley Innovation Center, a state-of-the art facility for life-sciences research related to homeland security and defense.

Transforming the facility into the high-tech innovation center would be a cooperative effort by the city of Springfield and Southwest Missouri State University, said Tom Finnie, city manager. The city and SMSU have signed a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the project, and SMSU is working with consultants to evaluate the site.

The city bought the MFA property for about $100,000 in May 2003, Finnie said.

The price tag to revamp the structure could push $15 million in the form of federal funds and private monies, said Jim Baker, assistant to SMSU President John Keiser.

Pending completion of due diligence to ensure the facility can be used for SMSU's intended purpose, the center could be finished as early as the end of 2005, he added.

Memorandum

According to the memorandum, the city would grant the school a 25-year lease on the facility at $1 a year.

The explanation to Council Bill 142, which authorizes the memorandum, states that SMSU "is interested in renovating the former MFA mill to accommodate research and development, test and evaluation laboratories, and limited manufacturing applications. The proposed research focus will include bio-materials research, nanotechnology, advanced manufacturing, genomics/proteomics, bio-systems software engineering and biomedical instrument development.

"SMSU would renovate, upgrade and equip the complex with research and development labs, a Class 100 clean room and facilities for selected corporate research and development groups."

Whether SMSU undertakes that mission will be determined by consulting firms that began work April 16 and are focusing their work on three areas interior design, exterior modifications and physical security, said Fred Marty, associate vice president for administrative services. The consultants' work will be done in 90 days, with results available toward the end of July, he added. The school is paying $135,000 for the evaluation.

St. Louis-based Ross & Baruzzini Inc. and Health Education Research Associates, and Springfield's Butler Rosenbury & Partners Inc. will evaluate the interior situation, Marty said.

Exterior changes will be determined by Springfield-based Sapp Design Associates, and the necessary security issues are being addressed by Rolla-based The Havens Group, he added.

Necessary funding

The Memorandum of Understanding states that securing funds to renovate the MFA site would be SMSU's responsibility.

The consultants' evaluation "will support our requests through Congressman Bond, Senator Blunt and Senator Talent for grant funding in this fiscal year (FY 2005 federal budget) that would get us somewhere in the $6 million to $8 million range," Marty said.

About $8 million would go toward phase I to rejuvenate a seven-story and an eight-story building, both with basements, into about 40,000 square feet of research, office and administrative space, Baker said.

Among the interior elements included in these two 50-year-old structures would be a ground floor reception area, office and administrative space, laboratories, research demonstration areas and the Class 100 clean room, Marty said.

A clean room is a "specialty contained space with environmentally treated air, and it's for (the) research or manufacturing of special components," Marty said. Essentially, the room is absolutely free of any and all contaminants that could foul the production of micro-biochips or other micro-components, he added.

Cost for the clean room itself would likely exceed $1 million, Baker said.

Ryan Giedd, PhD, head of the physics and astronomy department at SMSU, sees some shared facilities operating with about five to seven companies operating per building, sometimes with a company occupying an entire floor. The clean room would be for work on "biological micro-devices" and would be available to all firms.

In phase II, a 30,000-square-foot third building built in 1938 would be revamped with public and/or private funds and configured for tenant occupancy, according to Bill 142. Later, "simulation lines" or "pilot manufacturing lines" would be installed in an effort to expand technology developed in phase I into actual products.

Three companies are interested in working at the innovation center. St. Louis-based Crosslink Polymer Research, as well as Rolla-based Brewer Science Inc. and Eyes of the World, could be among the first businesses on board should the center become a reality, Giedd said.

Crosslink does work in conducting advanced polymers in biological sensor applications; Brewer Science is an advanced semi-conducting polymer coating firm; Eyes of the World makes advanced coatings for lens applications, Giedd said. All three do work related to homeland security.

There is the chance the center could be working with bio-terror agents or toxins in the future, Marty said. One of the security consultant's recommendations will address how to contain and control any hazardous waste that is produced on site, he added.

What it will do

Operations undertaken at the center will be "life sciences research directed toward homeland security and defense applications," Giedd said. "It's very interdisciplinary; it crosses over between security issues, biology issues, business issues, a whole range of different concerns."

The innovation center is a unique project. "I don't think in Missouri or in the region there's anything like this," Giedd said. "There are similar things in other states, but it's pretty unique to Missouri, particularly given our unique stance on intellectual property or patents. Basically, we're very open-minded about collaborating with industry. That's a very strong point at the center, so their intellectual property is protected, as well as ours."

Giedd said the Jordan Valley Innovation Center isn't like a "business incubator" that nurtures budding firms without a corporation behind them. "We're already expecting the companies to be relatively well developed and even have an understanding of what the product market's going to be."

Product development is the goal.

"Research directions and orientation will be driven toward product development," Giedd said. "Our main focus is to develop products," products that he hopes will ultimately be manufactured in Springfield.

Giedd said the jobs available at the Jordan Valley Innovation Center would be scientist positions, internship possibilities for students and, if phase II comes to fruition, manufacturing jobs.