Explanation
BACKGROUND:
The Association of University Related Business Parks has estimated there are over 200 research parks housing 4,000 companies, which employ over 225,000 workers in the United States. Research parks in the United States average between 500 - 1,000 acres. With the exception of the 53 acre Scitech campus, Columbus does not have a large-scale research park. This is due in part to a lack of a single, large (over 1,000 acres) developable tract of land within the city. Therefore, our ability to market and attract national and international high-tech companies to Columbus is compromised.
However, Columbus is fortunate to have an incredibly important economic development asset in the intense clustering of world-class educational, research, and knowledge-based companies and organizations located along the State Route 315 corridor. Anchored by The Ohio State University (and its associated research and medical institutions), Battelle Memorial Institute, Scitech, the Business Technology Center, Mt. Carmel and Riverside hospitals and a diverse variety of other high-tech institutions - an internationally important corridor emerges when these assets are combined into one, marketable location. The concept of a Columbus research corridor would promote interaction among community, government, business, industry, and academia whereby quality research and training in higher education institutions is used to develop, attract and retain knowledge-based, high-technology companies, in order to create high paying jobs for Columbus residents. By utilizing our existing resources the City of Columbus and its partners could create a new model for urban research parks - a cluster of linked, interdependent, public and private organizations melded into a seamless corridor located in close proximity to The Ohio State University.
In order to fully explore and develop this concept, Columbus City Council and the City Development Department propose to contract with t...
Click here for full text