County's SRI Deal Nearing Fruition
September 2, 2009
By Daily News Record
The biotech company came here to create the Center for Advanced Drug Research - CADRE - and has used JMU space for its laboratory work while the 40,000-square-foot technology park was being completed.
HARRISONBURG - After nearly a decade and millions of dollars, a grassy hill just north of Harrisonburg has finally become home to a world-renowned research firm.
Today, building inspectors are scheduled to give their final OKs and grant an occupancy permit for the SRI laboratory and offices, county officials said Tuesday.
Owned and built by Rockingham County, the building is the first to be completed in the Rockingham County Center for Research and Technology.
The $17 million facility will be rented for the next 30 years to SRI, a biotech nonprofit out of California's Silicon Valley. That lease starts today, assuming things pan out with the final inspection.
"This building is extremely important to the county, the immediate area and the state," said Stephen King, deputy county administrator. "We think it will be an economic-development catalyst. We're very excited."
How It Started
The project began in 2000, when Rockingham County paid the Richard King Mellon Foundation, a multibillion-dollar nonprofit out of Pittsburgh, $1.5 million for the 364-acre tract.
Located on U.S. 11, the property sits just north of the city limits.
At first, the county planned to build an industrial park, but, "as things progressed," officials decided it would be a "better business decision" to use the land for technology, said Joe Paxton, county administrator.
The tipping factor in that decision was a partnership created in 2006 between James Madison University and SRI.
The biotech company came here to create the Center for Advanced Drug Research - CADRE - and has used JMU space for its laboratory work while the 40,000-square-foot technology park was being completed.
The county spent about $3.7 million to install the roadways and water and sewer lines on the park property, and another $1 million for the entrance ponds, entrance sign, streetlights and landscaping.
The county will recover those costs over the course of the lease, Paxton said.
The Future
Although "a few" companies have approached the county about building facilities inside the technology park, none has made a commitment, Paxton said.
Those discussions have slowed because the companies were waiting until SRI's facility opened, he said. The downturn in the economy didn't help either.
When entering into the agreement with the county, SRI officials said the company would contribute almost $200,000 in property taxes in its first 10 years. They also said that SRI would create one spinoff company every five years.
Contact Heather Bowser at 574-6218 or hbowser@dnronline.com.