Tech park’s goal is acres, not jobs - The second of a two-part story about jobs in Dunn County
By LeAnn Ralph, Reporter
Monday, December 31, 2007 9:56 AM CST
Although businesses that intend to build, relocate or expand in Dunn County often mention the number of jobs that will be added to the area as an important component of their business plan, the jobs that a business will bring is not necessarily part of the plan for the Stout Technology Park.
“We have no specifics for the number of jobs that should be added (to the tech park) each year. … We haven’t looked at it in quite that way,” said Chris Smith, executive director of the Stout Technology Park.
The general goal for the technology park is to sell six acres per year, but the tech park plan does not include a certain number of jobs to be added over the next five or 10 years.
Within the next year, two companies are expected to locate in the tech park that will employ about 20 people each, Smith said. He noted that the types of businesses that locate in the Stout Technology Park generally buy about three acres, so that would work out to be two businesses per year.
Unique partnership
The Stout Technology Park, which opened in 1990 and covers 403 acres, is a unique partnership between the city of Menomonie, UW-Stout and Xcel Energy. A private donation of $50,000 was given to the Stout University Foundation in the late 1980s as a down payment on 700 acres along Highway 12/29 on the city’s east side.
The Stout Technology Park Development Corporation, made up of representatives for Xcel Energy, UW-Stout and the city, invested $1 million in 1990 for roads and utilities in the technology park.
Currently, 171 acres in the park are developed. A total of 14 acres remain available to be developed in the commercial zone, while 157 acres remain in the technology zone.
The commercial zone contains a number of offices, “so it’s really a business park and a technology park,” Smith explained.
To date, the tech park has 28 buildings and 61 business entities that employ 1,350 people. By comparison, UW-Stout and Wal-Mart Distribution each employ about 1,000 people.
Covenant structure
A covenant structure has been developed for the Stout Technology Park, stipulating the particulars for businesses that locate there.
“We want businesses specifically related (to the technology available through Stout) that are high-tech,” Smith said. “The covenant structure maintains the integrity of the park.”
According to the covenant, the Stout Technology park is “devoted to attracting industrial and business enterprises involved in research and development, high technology and professional services, and manufacturing related to the mission and programs of the University of Wisconsin-Stout and Chippewa Valley Technical College.”
The document goes on to say that the technology park “was established by the City of Menomonie to provide an aesthetically attractive and nuisance-free industrial zone exclusively for and conducive to the development and protection of research and development and manufacturing. The essential purpose of this District is to achieve industrial development that is an asset to the owners, community and economic development of the region.”
Permitted uses
Permitted uses in the Stout Technology Park include businesses involved in research and development, technology, manufacturing, prototyping, product testing and experimental or commercial testing.
Businesses that can locate in the industrial section of the park include light manufacturing; computer technology and software; education, psychological and rehabilitative products and materials; graphic arts and design; food service products and equipment; mechanical power transmission products and materials; telecommunications products and materials; scientific and precision instruments including robotics; and plastics manufacturing — to name a few.
Other businesses permitted in the industrial zone include public and private research centers, educational centers, rehabilitation centers, telecommunication centers, nonprofit charitable organizations and libraries.
Corporate and regional offices of industries meeting the criteria also are permitted in the industrial section of the tech park as are nursery schools, day care centers and child development centers.
Parks, playgrounds, soccer fields and health/fitness centers may locate there as well.
Commercial
The commercial section of the technology park can be used to accommodate professional offices, clinics, financial institutions, insurance offices, business offices, government offices and restaurants that are approved by the Stout Technology Park Development Corporation, according to the covenant.
Uses that are not permitted in the tech park include bus stations, laundry or dry cleaning establishments, police or fire stations, fast-food restaurants, private clubs, fraternities or lodges, and radio or television stations.
Logistics companies on the order of TNT Logistics and Wal-Mart Distribution have expressed interest in locating in the tech park, but those types of businesses do not fit in with the goals and the mission for the technology park, Smith said.
“Those kinds of companies are very interested in Dunn County because of the location in relation to (I-94) and the Twin Cities,” he said.
LeAnn Ralph can be reached at leann.ralph@lee.net. |
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