Dublin to Create 'Next-Generation' Technology Park
The City of Dublin announced plans to create a 1,500-acre innovation center at the interchange of U.S. 33 and state Route 161. As part of the vision for the new Central Ohio Innovation Center of Dublin, the City plans to increase the capacity of the interchange, which could be completed as soon as 2008.
“The Central Ohio Innovation Center of Dublin will be a next-generation technology park,” said Dublin's Deputy City Manager/Director of Economic Development Dana McDaniel. “We're taking the idea of knowledge-based business communities to the next level. This project will have a tremendously positive impact on the Central Ohio region and the state.”
The City retained O'Brien/Atkins Associates, architects of North Carolina's Research Triangle Park, to assist staff in developing a plan for the area. In Dublin's 1997 Community Plan, U.S. 33 and state Route 161 was identified as a prime location for a technology park.
“Dublin's proposal has the best possible scenario,” said O'Brien/Atkins President and CEO John Atkins. “We often talk about the necessary components for creating a project like this. In Dublin, they're already in place.”
Atkins said those components include a favorable business climate; realistic regulatory oversight; a well-educated workforce; robust infrastructure—including high-speed communications; access to capital; a transportation system and quality of life issues.
Dublin's vibrant economy is the result of the collective long-term vision of many City Councils over the years. There has been a consistent ongoing stewardship of resources applied to that vision, which has resulted in: infrastructure that is well-planned and coordinated; comprehensive planning and zoning; fiscally sound public financing; win-win partnerships; and responsible incentives to retain, expand and attract businesses.
“This is an opportunity to build on an already thriving economy,” McDaniel said. “Dublin's corporate community includes a wide variety of technology-based businesses.”
McDaniel said there is a movement toward the information economy that is driving cities to set the conditions to accommodate technology segments like bio-med, manufacturing or customer service, advanced transportation systems, distance learning, nanotechnologies, tele-medicine, e-commerce and information technology initiatives.
“The City already possesses 200 developable acres immediately adjacent to and within a stone's throw to what will be a new modern interchange,” McDaniel said. “Purchasing the land allows us to diversify the City's economy and establish the conditions to create new jobs. This land can be leveraged against other incentives to get the core nucleus of the 1,500-acre area moving.”
Dublin is finalizing its connectivity to the Third Frontier Network, OARNET and the Ohio Super Computer Center. Through this connectivity the City, Dublin schools and businesses will be connected to The Ohio State University and all colleges, universities and major research institutes in Ohio.
Through DubLink—Dublin's broadband fiber network—the City's business district and the Central Ohio Innovation Center of Dublin may be connected to our regional partners and other “tech clusters” at OSU, Battelle, the Business Technology Center, the former downtown Lazarus building and Polaris.
“These tech clusters all work to support each other,” Atkins said, “creating a synergy that benefits the region and the state.”
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Central Ohio Innovation Center Interchange
As part of the plans for the Innovation Center, Dublin will be making interchange improvements to better accommodate the increasing traffic in the area. Click here for more information about the interchange.
Dublin Offers Land, Support for OSU Health & Innovation Park
The reach of Ohio State University biomedical research innovations and outpatient health care services is set to expand to Dublin under a new agreement committing nearly 100 acres to development of a world-class health sciences campus.
The campus will serve as home to commercial enterprises derived from OSU Medical Center research and other related health care services.
Under the agreement, the city of Dublin is contributing approximately 100 acres to UMC Partners, an independent nonprofit corporation established to develop business opportunities utilizing science and research originating from OSU Medical Center.
UMC Partners will focus on developing the property for facilities and related ventures expected to generate employment opportunities, tax revenues and services that will benefit the Dublin community and the central Ohio economy, officials said.
The city of Dublin announced plans to create the 1,500-acre Central Ohio Innovation Center on May 9 and is investing an estimated $25 million in infrastructure improvements, including rebuilding the U.S. Rt. 33/Post Road interchange and improving other roads in the area. Dublin also will extend its fiber optic system and connection to OARNET and the Third Frontier Network via the Central Ohio Research Network to the UMC Partners property.
“The city is pleased to welcome UMC Partners as the first anchor of the Central Ohio Innovation Center,” said Dublin City Manager Jane S. Brautigam. “We expect this health-oriented initiative with its major research component to serve as both a nucleus to attract other related research as well as diversify the city’s economy.”
The UMC Partners site, to be known as The Ohio State University Health & Innovation Park, could feature a combination of research facilities, corporate headquarters and outpatient care services, said Jeffrey M. Wilkins, CEO of UMC Partners. The property is not intended to house a full-scale hospital.
UMC Partners chose Dublin because the site offers the most potential for the mixed use planned for the property and because Dublin leaders proposed improvements that will provide the most promising environment in which to launch new companies and house other health services for the OSU Medical Center, Wilkins said.
“The visionary approach in Dublin dovetails nicely with what we plan to accomplish in this park,” Wilkins said.
Establishment of the campus is a critical step for OSU Medical Center because it provides a designated point for biomedical technology commercialization efforts and other projects under discussion, said Dr. Fred Sanfilippo, CEO of OSU Medical Center and a member of the UMC Partners board.
“This is a great example of how UMC Partners can bring value and opportunity to the university and the medical center,” he said.
The partnership, while intended to speed movement of OSU discoveries into the marketplace, involves no university expenditures or state capital funding. UMC Partners is an independent corporation designed to support the medical center and the university. It focuses on securing commercial funding for new business ventures and expects to license university technology. Its initiatives support the academic mission of the university and the medical center while also contributing to economic development in the city and the state.