By Andrew Webb
Of the Journal
TECH BYTES: The Sandia Science and Technology Park on Albuquerque's far east side is having a growth spurt of sorts.
Two companies in the park last week dedicated a total of 94,000 square feet of expanded space and new buildings; meanwhile, plans are in development to begin an expansion that will nearly double the park's size.
Engineering and manufacturing firm Team Specialty Products, one of the first tenants of the SS&TP, last Monday held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a $2.5 million, 22,000-square-foot addition to its 15,000-square-foot building.
Founded in 1985, TSP was one of the first tenants to move to the Science and Technology Park in the late 1990s. The park, just outside Kirtland Air Force Base, was built in hopes of attracting tenants whose customers included the Air Force and Sandia National Laboratories.
TSP is one of a handful of lab contractors recently named "strategic" suppliers, and its clients range from laboratories to medical and aerospace supply companies. It employs about 70 but plans to nearly double in employment as it begins to use the new space.
Another park tenant, Ktech, dedicated a new 72,000-square-foot building at the park on Wednesday, where it will house Poly-Flow Engineering.
Ktech, a major lab supplier known for managing operations of Sandia's massive Z-Machine, a high-energy simulation device, bought California-based Poly-Flow in 2004. Poly-Flow makes devices used to clean semiconductor and computer chip fabrication equipment of acids and other materials. Its clients include Intel.
Ktech officials have said Poly-Flow, now operating as its subsidiary, will employ about 150.
And, on Tuesday, the Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce announced a $1.1 million grant to extend a fiber-optic telecommunications network into another 100 acres of the 200-acre park that has yet to be used. It's the third EDA grant for telecommunications and other infrastructure at the park.
The announcement comes as the SS&TP plans to start developing the new land, which, like the rest of the park, is a patchwork of public and private land mostly owned by Albuquerque Public Schools and the New Mexico State Land Office.
The first phase of the park is nearing capacity, said SS&TP executive director Jackie Kerby Moore.
"We have a list of companies we're talking to," she said.
The dedications come on the heels of other recent projects at the park, including the 95,000-square-foot Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies and 2005's multi-tenant Sandia Synergy Center.
The park is currently home to 22 companies and agencies, and more than 1,100 employees.
"By the end of this year, I expect there will be over 2,000 jobs and 900,000 square feet under roof in the park," said Sherman McCorkle, president of the park's nonprofit manager, Science and Technology Park Development Corp.
AVANCA BOUGHT BY NUKE MED FIRM: Global Medical Solutions Ltd., a nuclear medicine and diagnostic imaging company, has purchased a majority ownership in Avanca Medical Devices, a University of New Mexico spinout making a single-handed syringe.
Global Medical Solutions purchased $1 million in common stock in Avanca, giving it a 51 percent stake in the firm. Global Medical's chief operating officer, Jay Simon, is now also president and COO of Avanca. Avanca's former CEO and founder, Dr. Wilmer Sibbitt, will remain as chief scientific officer.
In a letter to shareholders, Sibbitt said Avanca's board of directors had been seeking a partner to provide management and distribution expertise.
Besides new management, Global Medical also plans to assist Avanca in funding the development of additional sizes for the reciprocating syringe, which can be used with one hand.
"Right now, Avanca only has a 10 cc syringe," Simon said.
But large medical suppliers, such as Cardinal or Tyco, want a variety of sizes to include in surgical kits and other medical products.
"Avanca just didn't have the resources for that," he said.
Global Medical manufactures radioisotopes and other medical products, and operates radiopharmacies and diagnostic imaging clinics in Australia, Brazil, China and Taiwan. It is a subsidiary of Nevada-based HSB Holdings.
Though its headquarters is in Los Angeles, Simon, a UNM pharmacy alumnus, is based in Albuquerque.
CINT REP TO ADDRESS NANO-NETWORK: Neal Shinn, user program manager for the Department of Energy's Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, will be the keynote speaker next week at a meeting of the Nano-Network of New Mexico.
CINT is a joint project of Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories aimed at fostering research in high-tech materials whose molecules have been manipulated to achieve desired properties, such as heat resistance or electrical conductivity.
Shinn is responsible for CINT's user program, which encourages partnerships with science and business interests outside the labs.
The Nano-Network meeting is at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 13 in the auditorium of the UNM Science and Tech Park, at 801 University SE. Admission is free.
Andrew Webb covers technology for the Journal. You can reach him at 823-3819 or awebb@abqjournal.com.
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