Last week I wrote about the struggles of Kinetic Park in Huntington with its dermatologist anchor-tenant and indicated that I would write about the struggles of two other research/technology parks in the new future: the Dow Technology Center in South Charleston and the West Virginia University Research Park in Morgantown.
On Sunday, Charleston Gazette reporter Eric Eyre wrote about the Dow Technology Center. The article was titled “Supporters try to save South Charleston Tech Park,” which says about all that needs to be said about the current status of the Tech Center.
Unlike Kinetic Park and the WVU Research Park, which have never succeeded in getting off the ground, the Dow Tech Center has a storied past. Located on a relatively flat area between I-64 and Corridor G in South Charleston, the Union Carbide Tech Center opened in 1949; employed as many as 3,500 chemists, technicians, researchers and engineers in its heyday; and produced more than 30,000 patents worth $18 billion, according to the article. Intriguingly, this was done in an area without a research university or a significant educational pipeline of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) graduates. (Nearby West Virginia Tech produced engineering graduates, but not in the quantities or advanced degrees needed to support a major research facility.)
Over the last several decades, the South Charleston Tech Center has fallen on hard times. With the exception of the Mid-Atlantic Technology Research and Innovation Center (MATRIC), with about 150 employees, not much remains of the Tech Center. The article quotes a MATRIC employee as saying: “There’s a lot of intellectual capital left in the valley. This is an ideal place for technology development. It’s like Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.” I don’t think this assessment is correct. While Union Carbide invested millions, if not billions, of dollars in the Tech Center and brought smart people from all over the nation and world to the Kanawha Valley, it is very unlikely that another private sector entity would do the same. Why not?
- Intellectual Capital. Unlike Research Triangle Park, which is surrounded by Duke University, the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University, the Tech Center is surrounded by West Virginia State University and the University of Charleston, neither of which has the kinds of strong STEM programs needed to support the Tech Center, and West Virginia University Institute of Technology, which has some of the programs, but is struggling at best, dying at worst. Furthermore, WVU-Tech’s last foray in the direction of the Dow Tech Center was an unmitigated disaster; just ask the “Take Back Tech” folks.
- Environmental Issues. Having been aware of at least two efforts to assess environmental conditions at the Center, I know there are widely divergent opinions. Clearly, there are serious environmental issues associated with a sediment pond on the property. Beyond that, some people think the site is quite habitable. Regardless, any time an environmental cloud hangs over a piece of property, it presents serious challenges for any marketer of that property.
- The Owner. Dow Chemical, which owns the property, faces a financial dilemma. It has a series of old buildings on property that is of little use to it now, and there’s no single buyer on the horizon willing to take all the property off its hands. So rather than continue to maintain buildings that are partially occupied, Dow is beginning to level them to reduce maintenance costs. Additionally, Dow is not the easiest company with which to deal on property issues, I have been told.
Keeping with our dermatological theme, can West Virginia University and/or Marshall University provide the necessary chemical peel? No. Neither institution has the critical research mass needed on its home campus. If significant institutional resources were redirected to South Charleston, it probably would weaken both institutions’ current research-building efforts. Additionally, there is little likelihood of a new infusion of external resources at either institution to support such an endeavor.
Can West Virginia’s state government provide the necessary chemical peel? Not without taking an incredible risk. If the property ended up in the hands of the State, the State also would inherit a set of old facilities that need to be maintained and some serious environmental questions. Additionally, the State would have to find a significant number of new tenants for the site. All one has to do is tour facilities on the Capitol Complex to appreciate what a poor landlord the State historically has been.
What’s the best-case scenario? Create a consortium of educational and private sector organizations in addition to MATRIC to serve as anchor tenants at the Tech Center. On the education front, create a higher education center, much like the one in Beckley, which has the potential to thrive and grow, and locate the Kanawha Valley’s new Advanced Technology Center on the site. On the private sector front, market, market, market the Center to anyone and everyone who might have the slightest interest. It’s a long shot, but I think it’s probably the best shot we have.