12-05-08 Commission Approves Certified Tech Park agreement

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Office of the Mayor NEWS RELEASE December 5, 2008 11:30 a.m. Commission to consider Certified Tech Park agreement Contact: Mikki Dobski, Director of Communications & Special Projects, 235-5855 or 876-1564 or Don Inks, Director of Economic Development, 235-9371 Innovation Park at Notre Dame is under construction near campus. Plans are being developed to market the Sample Street site to nanotechnology businesses. And a final agreement for Indiana’s first two-site Certified Technology Park nears completion. South Bend’s Redevelopment Commission unanimously approved an agreement Friday with the Indiana Economic Development Corp. for state certification of South Bend’s first technology park. It consists of two sites: ? 12 acres along Edison Road, west of Twyckenham Drive, known as Innovation Park at Notre Dame. ? 83 acres southeast of Sample and Chapin streets on a soon-to-be-named site in the former Studebaker Corridor. In addition, the Redevelopment Commission also approved an agreement for a $2 million Technology Development Grant from the state. The grant, for the purpose of constructing a business incubator, will be subgranted to the University of Notre Dame, which now is building a three-story, 54,000-square foot building for Innovation Park. While both sites are anticipated to house start-up companies seeking to commercialize research, the Sample Street site is expected to serve as the primary location for Innovation Park “alumni” as well as enterprises related to MIND, the Midwest Institute for Nanoelectronics Discovery, one of four national research centers funded by the world’s leading computer-chip makers. “This Certified Technology Park will advance the position of South Bend as an emerging center of research, development and innovation, taking a heritage of ingenuity and entrepreneurship to the next level,” said Mayor Stephen J. Luecke. “At these sites, the tremendous intellectual property at Notre Dame, the Indiana University School of Medicine in South Bend and other schools will be leveraged into new businesses and jobs for South Bend in a way that other communities will envy.”