Bond Commission To Authorize $18 Million For UConn Tech Park
by Hugh McQuaid | Aug 26, 2011 5:30am
(7) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: CT Tech Junkie, Education, State Budget, Mansfield-Storrs
The state Bond Commission is expected to approve $18 million Friday to begin construction on a $172 million project to build a technology park on the University of Connecticut’s Storrs campus, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Thursday.
At a ceremonial signing of the bill that authorized the project, Malloy said the park will serve as the third point of a Connecticut research triangle that will also include Yale University and the UConn Medical Center in Farmington.
Malloy said the research triangle will establish a network to reverse a 22 year job loss trend in the state. It will create construction jobs in the immediate future and high-paying research jobs in the long-term, he said.
He said the tech park will also benefit the economy because it will encourage research that will lead to money-making patents.
“We are laying, literally, the foundation for additional monetization and the bringing to market of great ideas for products that will be the outgrowth of research occurring on this campus,” he said.
Sen. President Donald Williams, who was credited for fast-tracking the bill through the legislature, said it will help to highlight the good research work that’s already being done at UConn.
“It’s time to not only shine a light on northeastern Connecticut and Storrs and our flagship campus, it’s time to turn all the lights on so that this part of that corridor burns brightly. So that here we create the jobs for all of Connecticut and especially for eastern Connecticut,” he said.
UConn President Susan Herbst said she believes the project will have the same transformative effect on the university as the UConn 2000 initiative has had. That program is a 20-year, $2.3 billion bonding investment in the university, passed by the legislature in 1995.
“The initiative is very well timed. Over the last 15 years, the university has built the strong foundation for increasing industry-university interactions, trying to develop more core technological competencies that we need to support the state’s economy,” she said.
She highlighted some of the school’s accomplishments in the past 12 years. It produced 226 patents, 97 active technology licenses, and more than 35 startup companies, she said. With the creation of the tech park there will be more start up companies to come, she said.
Department of Labor Commissioner Glenn Marshall said the project will be especially important to the ailing construction industry.
“They referred to this downturn as the Great Recession but for the construction industry with unemployment rates hovering above 25 percent for a prolonged period of time, it’s been a depression,” he said.
The construction the first building in the tech park project will provide work for more than 750 steel workers, carpenters and painters for at least 18 months, he said. It will also put to work 114 architects, engineers and other professional staff, he said.
The $18 million that is expected to be approved on Friday will be used for the design and construction of that first building, called the Innovation Partnership Building, Williams said. It will also be used for environmental assessments and permits.
In a phone interview Thursday, Senate Minority Leader John McKinney said that, although he voted against the bond package the project was included in, the tech park seems like a good project that will create jobs.
However he had issues with how it was passed through the legislature without a public hearing and with little information, he said. He also said that in giving the university the money, the governor missed an opportunity to get the institution to prioritize its spending.
UConn still has hundreds of millions left over from UConn 2000 and UConn 21st Century, another bonding program, but they refused to contribute even a single dollar of the funds towards the tech park, he said.
McKinney said he met with the university’s leadership to try and convince them to delay or cancel some of its other projects to help fund the tech park, but they insisted on moving forward with all of them. Malloy could have tried to force their hand, he said.
“That the governor was unwilling to challenge the university to re-prioritize its spending is what really frustrates me,” he said.
Tags: uconn, technology, malloy, bond commission, Hugh McQuaid
(7) Comments
posted by: Disgruntled | August 26, 2011 7:50am
I said it the other day and will continue to repeat it.
Politics and education do not mix.
It is easy gamble when the taxpayer always picks up the tab but this project does not seem very well thought out and the legislature never seems to say no when it comes to spending.
I shudder to think what salaries/costs will be in a school where the AD had a package worth $700K.
One can only hope that Dan’s hope for a ResearchTriangle is not just the beginning of a pentagram!
posted by: DirtyJobsGUy | August 26, 2011 8:13am
The whole tech park thing is a fraud. It basically is a real estate development somewhere near a University with a fancy name and public funding.
If it’s a great deal then how about private development? Ooops then it would be built with non-union labor and no new commissioner jobs are created.
posted by: Disgruntled | August 26, 2011 9:12am
I hope that it is built with union labor—every last bit of it! Maybe even with Connecticut workers and not Massachusetts commuters,but that is doubtful.
On the funding end,Dan REALLY is not thinking this through. Jamming a project like this down the throats of taxpayers is not good planning.If the demand is really there,why not reach out to the corporations who will benefit? All those trips to DC,with the new “liason office” should have gotten some stimulus money at the very least. Your buddy JoeLieberman should be involved. Heck! Corporate funding abounds! UCLA is all in a tizzy re: Lowell Milken’s donation of $10M. Uof Houston never said no to Ken Lay’s cash.Seaton Hall did manage to take Dennis Kozlowski’s name off a building and that would never happen in Ct.!
In short,THINK before you spend Dan! There are plenty of corporate criminals who would like their name on a building upstate. UBS maybe?
Remember to share some of the sacrifice to someone besides the “little people”.
posted by: Icarus | August 26, 2011 12:51pm
Projects like this are why UConn’s reputation has improved over the last ten years. Considering how many CT residents attend, attended, or will attend UConn this is a great investment.
posted by: Disgruntled | August 26, 2011 2:24pm
As disgruntled as I may sound,I agree. It is the maddness of his method that bothers me and the bigger question—what if it is a flop? I do not think it will be but the world thought mortgage-backed securities and Greek debt were safe to invest in!
posted by: Icarus | August 26, 2011 8:41pm
Disgruntled,
All investments have an element of risk. However, considering the research already being done at UConn and its growing reputation this is a low risk investment. At worst it will be a brand new building for students and researchers already there. More likely, it will also attract additional research and grants. Add in the approximately 800 jobs it creates temporarily and the likely permanent jobs and this is a win on all fronts.
posted by: sharewhut | August 26, 2011 9:09pm
But pushed through without public hearings… like the ones that killed Pfizer sponsoring research facilities on Horsebarn Hill some years ago. Which if in place may have kept them from running to Cambridge. Where’s this going to be? And wasn’t this sort of thing supposed to have been in the UCONN2000 project? Haven’t been through in a few years, I know there’s a lot of new stuff (South Campus & hotel, Coop & garages, Hilltop housing, and new housing beyond North Campus & Towers). What became of the tech/research stuff supposed to go up between Rt. 44 and campus? (FMyI)