CITY PLANS 500-ACRE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARK WITH UNIVERSITY ANCHOR

BLUE SPRINGS, MO. — The Blue Springs Economic Development Corp., in conjunction with the city of Blue Springs, will develop the Missouri Innovation Park at Blue Springs. Located at Interstate 70 and Adams Dairy Parkway, the approximately 500-acre science and technology innovation park will be anchored by a long-term collaboration with the University of Missouri. The University of Missouri has plans to establish The Mizzou Innovation Center within the park, which will provide the basis for scientific collaboration and commercial innovation links between the UM campus in Columbia and the larger research and private industrial community. Plans for the innovation center call for a single institutional building, which may expand to multiple buildings ranging in size from 10,000 square feet to 60,000 square feet. A request for qualifications from national public development partners to provide planning, development, management, and financing expertise and resources for the project has been issued. Planning for the project is expected to last 4 to 6 months, followed by an 18- to 24-month design and development period before initial operations commence. Financing for the Missouri Innovation Park is proposed to include both public and private investments. Initial capital for the acquisition of the vacant land, which surrounds the Adams Dairy Parkway Golf Course, has been provided by Kansas City Power & Light.