By Gail Burkhardt
The Monitor
May 21, 2011
Developers and manufacturers hope to create a research and education hub here focusing on rapidly turning ideas into products.
Master planning is under way for a research and education park in South McAllen that will have facilities to research and develop products using resources such as technology, students and programs from South Texas College and the University of Texas-Pan American.
The hope is that talented graduates will stay in the area to work at the park instead of moving out of the Rio Grande Valley, said Keith Patridge, the president and CEO of the McAllen Economic Development Corp.
Organizers also want the park to attract companies to nearby plants in Reynosa and other parts of Mexico as well as bring new businesses to the Rio Grande Valley.
Although STC and UTPA are not known research universities they will work with other universities across the country, said Wanda Garza, the executive officer for the North American Advanced Manufacturing Research and Education Initiative, which operates out of South Texas College. The park’s subcommittee is made up of affiliates of NAAMREI, which focuses on bringing world-class advanced manufacturing industry in the Rio South Texas Region. The region comprises Cameron, Hidalgo, Jim Hogg, Starr, Webb, Willacy and Zapata counties.
According to a Labor Market Information Report from Tech Prep of the Valley Inc., the percent of Valley residents older than 25 with less than a high school diploma ranged from 37.5 percent to 50.7 percent in 2008 compared to 20.8 percent for Texas and 15 percent for the U.S. Only 13 percent of Valley residents had a bachelor’s degree compared to 24 percent of Texans and 29 percent of U.S. residents.
Garza noted that the number of students attending UTPA and STC is growing, thus increasing educational attainment for the Valley.
UTPA’s Rapid Response Manufacturing Center, which will have an anchor facility at the new park, uses technology, research and other university resources to take products from the idea stage to the manufacturing stage as quickly as possible, said subcommittee member Miguel Gonzalez, the associate dean for the College of Engineering and Computer Science at UTPA, who also works in the Rapid Response Manufacturing Center.
UTPA collaborates with other universities including University of Texas-Brownsville, Texas A & M International in Laredo, Michigan State University, University of Texas-San Antonio, Texas A & M-Corpus Christi and Texas A & M-Kingsville, Gonzalez wrote in an email. Internationally, the university works with Monterrey Tech in Mexico, Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and Shaotong University in China.
Rapid response manufacturing depends on the newest technology, Gonzalez said. University students and faculty stay abreast of evolving technology and train others how to use it.
“What good is technology if people aren’t able to use it?” Gonzalez said, explaining the importance of training.
Gonzalez said students from programs such as engineering, science and business would be able to participate in research at the park.
“We would hope that we would have the next Microsoft develop out of McAllen,” Patridge said.
MASTER PLAN
The park’s subcommittee will not be able to determine the types of companies that will go into the park until master planning is finished this fall. However, organizers do have some ideas of what would come in.
“We are working with companies that have expressed an interest in the park, including emerging technology, nanotechnology, electronics, medical … all kinds of different types of industry,” Patridge said.
The research and development park would work with industrial parks in the area that include manufacturing of everything from “medical devices to electronics” as well as plastics, Garza said.
The park will focus on engineering and design, said Stephen Coulston, a principal at Broaddus and Associates, the Austin-based company completing the park’s master plan.
Coulston said his company is about halfway through the master plan for the 400-acre park.
The planning costs about $300,000, which is covered by a U.S. Department of Commerce grant. About 80 acres of land belongs to the city of McAllen and the rest belongs to Verde Corp. and Hunt Valley Development, the owners of Sharyland Plantation. Both companies are involved in the master plan, Garza said.
Organizers visited other research parks in the country, including the well-known Research Triangle Park based near Duke University, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The research park in McAllen would be different from the Research Triangle Park because it already has amenities built near the location. The area around the Research Triangle Park built up once the park opened. The amenities in McAllen would help the park follow the “live, work, play” model, which focuses on giving employees and visitors to the park places to visit outside of the workplace, Garza said. Nearby there are hotels, shopping centers, such as La Plaza Mall, industrial parks, State Farm Arena and housing.
Master planners also are looking to add some amenities within the park such as housing for employees who will be staying for six to 24 months, Coulston said, adding that the park would also include coffee shops and restaurants.