Research
Technopolis push may alter future
...Drive along Interstate 10 and it’s not readily apparent. But along the 70-mile stretch of South
Mississippi interstate you’ll pass developments in Moss Point, Biloxi, Gulfport and the John C.
Stennis Space Center area that promise to change the economic face of South Mississippi.
...South Mississippi, which has its share of industrial and office parks, is a late bloomer when it
comes to the development of university and privately developed science and technology parks.
But now they are popping up all over, and when combined with the efforts to rebuild hurricane-
damaged portions of South Mississippi with the latest in new urban thinking, it could make this
region a showcase.
The Stanford example
...Research parks are crucial to an area that sees a science- and technology-based future.
Stanford University in California created the nation’s first high-tech research park in 1951 in
response to industry’s call for land near university resources and the emerging electronics
industry tied closely to the School of Engineering. It was instrumental in the creation of Silicon
Valley.
...Other parks followed, including North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, the largest research
park in the world with more than 7,000 acres, and Cummings Research Park in Huntsville, Ala.,
a premier aerospace center.
...Science parks stand out for their emphasis on bridging the gap between research and industry.
The traditional research park has a university element, though there are parks that do not. While
they have residential neighborhoods in proximity, a newer development has been the
incorporation of neighborhoods into the park itself.
...One example of this approach is the 1,334-acre Centennial Campus in Raleigh, N.C.,
Centennial Campus is North Carolina State University’s vision of the future, a “technopolis” that
consists of multi-disciplinary R&D neighborhoods, with university, corporate, and government
facilities inter-twined with a middle school, residential housing, executive conference center and
hotel, golf course and town center.
...One university impressed with Centennial Campus is the University of New Orleans. UNO’s
Research and Technology Park, on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain, is a 56-acre campus on the
site of a former amusement park. Plans call for development of a 400-acre UNO R&T Park
Slidell Cam-pus that will reflect aspects of Centennial Village.
Mississippi
...Three of the state’s four major research universities are developing research parks. In
Hattiesburg ground was broken in May for the first building at the University of Southern
Mississippi’s Innovation and Commercialization Park; in Oxford, the University of Mississippi
has a 500-acre park in the works; in Starkville, Mississippi State University has a research park
and is involved in the development of an aerospace park in the Golden Triangle airport region.
The fourth research university, Jackson State University, has a variation of the research park
theme with its Medical Mall, a former shopping center.
...South Mississippi was interested in a science park as far back as 1999 with a plan to create a
90-acre R&D park in Gulfport for remote sensing businesses. But the idea fell through. Now,
nearly 10 years later, things are picking up.
...Some of the developments are taking on the Centennial Campus approach. Just outside Stennis
Space Center, a Mobile developer has put up the first building of Stennis Technology Park, a
1,000-acre park for high-tech companies that graduate from the Stennis Space Center incubator.
Plans now call for incorporating a residential community and town square.
...The Tradition community nine miles north of Biloxi started as a walkable community with
several neighborhoods and shopping at a town square. It has added an office/research complex to
the plan and will be the site for a William Carey University campus.
...A short distance to the southwest of Tradition, the new USM campus to the west of the I-10-
U.S. 49 intersection will have 1,700 acres at its disposal and plans call for a research center.
While plans are yet to be firmed up – with the addition of residential communities – it, too, could
become a Centennial Campus-type development.
Other options
...But there are other science and technology parks being developed more along traditional lines.
The list includes Moss Point’s Trent Lott Aviation Technology Park, home of the Northrop
Grumman Unmanned Systems Center and the Moss Point Industrial and Technology Complex,
Harrison County’s Bernard Bayou Industrial Complex and the Intraplex 10, and Hancock
County’s Port Bienville Industrial Park.
...In Ocean Springs, the Gulf Coast Research Lab’s Cedar Point development will include an
incubator for companies interested in taking advantage of the research at the lab. Whether it
might also include a research park is still to be decided.
...Pearl River County is pondering smaller developments that would take advantage of proximity
to Stennis Space Center and an emphasis on agricultural research. Stone County believes its
location along high-growth U.S. 49 will open multiple opportunities for sci-tech parks that would
take advantage of proximity to Tradition, the new USM campus as well as Hattiesburg. And
George County has a new megasite that expects to leverage its location between high-growth
Hattiesburg and Mobile, Ala.
...Industrial parks are also luring tech companies.
...Port Bienville Industrial Park near Waveland in 2002 welcomed its first tenant that focuses on
research and development. Mississippi Polymer Technologies moved into a site to develop a
plastic that has the strength of steel. It has since been purchased by Europe’s Solvay.
...Another former military facility is the 4,300-acre Mississippi Army Ammunition Plant
Industrial Complex in the northern portion of Stennis Space Center. Today it caters to both high-
tech and industrial tenants. More than half the useable space is being utilized by a variety of
government entities and companies, including Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.
...Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport is developing a 120 to 270-acre aviation park as part of its
plan to move its general aviation operation to the south part of the field.
...Stennis Space Center, the state of Mississippi, Hancock County and Stennis are developing the
Stennis Aerospace Technology Park. While no specific size has been determined for the park,
there are up to 5,000 acres in the northeast quadrant of Stennis that could be used. The first
tenant is the Lockheed Martin Space and Technology Center, a 220,000 square-foot facility that
opened in 2002. – Tcp
October 2007