HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-23-09 Plan will increase Innovation Park, Ignition Park ties
Office of the Mayor
NEWS RELEASE
October 23, 2009
11:15 a.m.
Plan will increase Innovation Park, Ignition Park ties
Contact:
Mikki Dobski, Director of Communications & Special Projects, 235-5855 or 876-
1564, or Jeff Gibney, Executive Director of Community and Economic Development, 235-9371
The South Bend Redevelopment Commission today approved a contract that will visibly
strengthen a seamless relationship between its two state-certified technology parks while
developing a formal business plan for Ignition Park.
On a day marking the opening of Innovation Park at Notre Dame, one site of South
Bend’s two-site state-certified technology park, the Redevelopment Commission
authorized a contract with South Bend-based Hathaway 2 Inc. to develop a 10-year
“strategic vision and development plan” for the other site, Ignition Park.
The plan will place a consultant, operating on behalf of the City of South Bend, in offices
at Innovation Park, enhancing what officials describe as a “seamless” relationship
between the sister technology parks. Among other things, Ignition Park is expected to be
a landing site for firms that emerge from Innovation Park, where research innovations
become viable marketplace ventures.
“The strength of South Bend’s efforts to power the new economy lies in strong
partnerships, through which innovative research is finding new expressions in
commercial products and ventures,” said Mayor Stephen J. Luecke. “The seamless
relationship between Innovation Park and Ignition Park highlights those strengths. With
personnel based at Innovation Park, working collaboratively on a daily basis, the
connection between our two-site technology parks will be even stronger than first
envisioned.”
The Redevelopment Commission already is in the middle of a multi-year marketing/
communications contract with The Blue Waters Group, a firm with offices in Madison,
Wis., and South Bend, focusing on communication about Ignition Park and economic
opportunities in South Bend.
But the new contract with Hathaway 2 Inc. addresses more specific tactical measures
related to the economic development of the Ignition Park site at Sample and Chapin
streets, such as:
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Identifying the future management of Ignition Park, including the extent of the
City’s ongoing day-to-day role.
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Preparing five-year operating and development budgets.
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Developing a plan for financial self-sustainability, including funding
opportunities.
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Managing an advisory group that would identify key research areas and help
guide the determination of an appropriate tenant mix for Ignition Park.
Hathaway 2 Inc. will be represented by Geri Hathaway, the firm’s president, and James
Eifert, former president of Rose-Hulman Ventures, who previously served as a consultant
in the application for South Bend’s two-site state-certified technology park. Eifert will be
available to Hathaway 2 as a consultant.
Located on the grounds of former automaker Studebaker Corp., Ignition Park is being
developed on more than 140 acres of land just southwest of downtown. Abandoned
buildings on the site have been demolished since 2000 in Indiana’s most aggressive
brownfield reclamation effort. That process should be complete in 2011. Site tests already
have demonstrated that Ignition Park is ideally suited for nanotechnology development,
among other high-tech ventures. But such sensitive work cannot proceed while existing
buildings are being demolished.
“The steps taken today will help ensure that when Ignition Park is ready for development
that development will be ready for Ignition Park,” said Jeff Gibney, executive director of
South Bend’s Department of Community and Economic Development. “The City of
South Bend is moving forward aggressively to develop this site for high-tech businesses
and to marshal the community’s strengths and resources to our fullest potential.”
The one-year contract is effective Nov. 1.
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