URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/AED/296153business03-27-08.htm

Thursday, March 27, 2008
Combined Efforts of Government Entities, Private Sector Have Made Science Park a Success
By Andrew Webb
Copyright © 2008 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer
    A few years ago, Jackie Kerby Moore, executive director of the Sandia Science and Technology Park, got the first sign that quarterly picnics thrown for tenants were starting to pay off.
    "I remember the first time I drove back to the office after lunch and saw two company presidents walking together," she recalls. "We wanted to create a technology community to do business and grow and succeed together, so that was a special moment."
    The southeast Albuquerque tech park, a massive collaboration between Sandia National Laboratories, the city, the state and multiple land owners and funding sources, turns 10 this year.
    And by all accounts, the project has been a success.
    "Everything fell together like a hand in a glove," said Dan Hartley, a now-retired former vice president of development at Sandia National Labs, who began discussing the idea of a tech park with local and state officials in the early 1990s.
    "Today, I think it's viewed as one of the most successful science and technology parks in the country," he said.
    1 million square feet

    Today, the park's 27 tenants account for just under 1 million square feet of office, lab and manufacturing space, spread over roughly 70 acres and linked by a high-tech fiber optic telecommunications system, a network of new roads and small landscaped "pocket parks" with shade structures and fitness activities.
    The park and its remaining 100-plus developable acres front the eastern edge of Kirtland Air Force Base and Sandia National Labs, and are surrounded by housing developments to the north and east.
    Back in the 1990s, this was the edge of town— empty lots that gave way to a network of dirtbike paths and illegally dumped trash abutting the labs' massive backlot.
    "We saw that big piece of land out there on Eubank every day, and we thought, 'Let's pull those land owners together and pull together a tech park,' '' Hartley said.
    Hartley, whose work at Sandia involved the transfer of lab-developed technology to the private sector, discussed the concept with other tech commercialization promoters like Sherman McCorkle, who founded Technology Ventures Corp. in 1993 to match would-be entrepreneurs with venture capital and would later become chairman of the park's nonprofit governing board.
    In the beginning

    Beginning in the 1950s and intensifying as government funding for nuclear weapons research slowed after the Cold War, national laboratories around the country were looking for ways to interact with, and in some cases, cooperate on research with, or license technology to private sector businesses.
    Using as a model the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina's Research Triangle Park, labs and universities in the 1980s began in earnest to build launchpads for private companies "spun out" of government-funded research.
    And Albuquerque, where many high-tech companies are closely tied to business with the labs, appeared to have just such a location.
    Moore, then Hartley's business manager at Sandia, says she reluctantly agreed to begin contacting landowners, which included Albuquerque Public Schools, the State Land Office, the Department of Energy and a patchwork of private owners.
    Then, in December of 1997, tech park backers got an enviable break— Emcore Corp., a publicly traded materials firm then based in New Jersey, decided to buy MicroOptical Devices, or MODE Inc., a lab spinoff company whose tiny lasers held much promise for the telecommunications industry, for $30 million.
    "Literally, the next day, they said they wanted to begin building in nine months, right outside the (labs') gate," Moore said. "We hadn't even put the land together yet."
    Ground was broken for Emcore in May of that year, the city soon thereafter agreed to widen and improve Eubank SE to allow access, and the labs sponsored a two-day business conference to lure companies to the park.
    "There has been a project under construction ever since," Moore said.
    Diverse arrangements

    Ownership of the park's buildings is as diverse as the land they sit on. Some buildings are owned by their tenant companies, while others are built and leased by local developers, like Build New Mexico and private landowners within the park.
    Today, the park's list of tenants includes:
   

Several off-base lab facilities, such as the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies.
   

Engineering firms that do business with Sandia, the Air Force Research Lab and other federal customers, such as Ktech, Team Technologies and Analytical Solutions.
   

Local offices for national engineering and research firms like Battelle.
   

Manufacturers, like Ktech subsidiary Poly-Flow Engineering, a manufacturer of equipment used by the semiconductor industry, and Heel Inc, a manufacturer and distributor of homeopathic products.
    Emcore Corp. moved its headquarters here last year, and now has three facilities at the park.
    Satisfied customers

    "This was one of the best moves we ever made," said Anthony Tenorio, president and principal owner of Applied Technology Associates, a 30-year-old engineering firm whose primary business is the sensing, measurement and correction of minute motion.
    ATA consolidated from several locations around town to the park in 2001.
    "It allowed us to get a whole lot more visible with Sandia National Laboratories, and we're doing a lot of business with other tenants of the park as well."
    Michael Strizich, president of Analytical Solutions, agreed. Along with Emcore, Analytical Solutions was one of the first businesses to locate at the park. It specializes in analyzing the failure of complex electrical devices and chips used in high-stress environments, such as satellites.
    Analytical Solutions recently doubled its building size at the park to 14,500 square feet.
    "We've done business with almost all of the companies here," he said. "It's very collegial."
    Furthermore, he said, having thousands of Sandians across the street has boosted his company's know-how.
    "They have experts in just about every scientific field you can think of," he said. "It's nice to be able to call on the experts."
    Looking to the future

    McCorkle said he expects the park to grow to 7,500 employees in the next 10 years, during which time developers also plan to complete another 100 acres and add retail and other amenities to the business mix there.
    "This thing started with no infrastructure at all and has exceeded everyone's expectations," he said, noting that the park has gotten plenty of support from the state's congressional delegation, on both sides of the aisle.
    "Over the past decade, the Sandia tech park has turned into a very dynamic and valuable area, not only for Albuquerque but also for the overall growth of innovative, high-tech jobs in New Mexico," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. "I couldn't be more pleased with how the park has been developed as an economic endeavor with federal, state, local and private support."
    Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., a longtime supporter of nationwide science and technology park development, said there was still room for improvement in the relationships between government and business.
    "I will continue working to pass legislation that strengthens ties between science parks and national laboratories, making it easier to turn research and development from Sandia into good jobs," he said.
    These days, Moore says she's expecting another sign, one she's been patiently awaiting for a decade.
    This year's capital outlay bill, which was recently signed by Gov. Bill Richardson, contained $60,000 for improvements to the park, including permanent signage to replace the small, temporary signs found there now.
    "It may not seem like a big deal, but I'm excited," Moore says. "I've been waiting 10 years for real signs."
   
    Sandia Science and Tech Park By the numbers
   
    Total acreage: About 200
    Developed acreage: 67
    Tenants: 27
    Employees: 2,113
    Contracts between Sandia National Laboratories and tenants: $209 million
    Contracts between tenants: $7 million
    Average salary: $62,000
    Public investment: $66 million
    Private investment: $229 million