THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 29, 1994 TAG: 9411290273
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
The city is trying to lure more high-tech industry with a new seven-story, white marble research building to be constructed near the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility.
The building, scheduled for completion in 1997, will house graduate-level college programs, offices for scientists, and physics laboratories. There will also be space for new businesses.
Already, Old Dominion University, Christopher Newport University, the College of William and Mary and the U.S. Department of Energy have agreed to lease space there.
City officials hope rent payments eventually will cover the $14 million needed to pay for the structure, the first project within Newport News' developing Science Center at Oyster Point.
The center is a 200-acre business park located around CEBAF, a government research lab where scientists are trying to find out what holds an atomic nucleus together.
``This is sort of the statement building, introducing the whole project,'' said Paul Miller, the city's director of planning and development.
The ``whole project'' is a plan to bring companies dependent on CEBAF research - firms that deal with lasers, for instance - to the city. The park will be divided into about 26 parcels, and the city will sell only to science-related firms.
Already, companies with plans for nonconforming ventures have been turned down.
``We're going to be fussy, because it's only 200 acres,'' Miller said. ``CEBAF is the mother of ideas, and we're now looking for the kids to be successful manufacturers.''
City Councilman Joe Frank, chairman of a committee overseeing the development of the science park, called the potential new businesses ``our gateway to the next century.''
The city anticipates 4,200 new jobs and $4.2 million in tax benefits if the park fills up completely.
The city and its school division own much of the land within the Science Center area. A big chunk is now used to store school books, equipment and buses that Miller said can be moved elsewhere.
The city also is demolishing nearby bunkers formerly used to house Air Force anti-aircraft missiles that were deactivated in 1972. Once that is done, the city will clean up any environmental hazards.
``Our focus will be on creating the conditions which will allow the future resale of the property without any concern for environmental risk or liability to future high-tech developers,'' City Manager Ed Maroney said in a recent memo to the City Council. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
An artist's rendering of a research building that Newport News
officials plan to use to lure high-tech companies. Scheduled for
completion in 1997, the structure will house graduate-level college
programs, offices for scientists and physics laboratories.
by CNB