Kettering University Innovation Center grand opening Aug. 31
The Kettering University Innovation Center, which officially opens next week, is a 9,000-square-foot investment in Michigan's rich technology future.
Kettering will showcase its new Innovation Center during grand opening ceremonies Tuesday, Aug. 31, from 5-7 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public on the corner of Bluff Street and Cottage Grove in Flint.
Neil Sheridan, director of Kettering University TechWorks, said the timing is ideal for the addition of the Innovation Center to the region's entrepreneurship strategy. "There is growing momentum for economic recovery in Michigan built on an Innovation Economy," Sheridan said. "This is a great place to manufacture complex, high-value products. Kettering with its partners in local government, businesses and associations will help drive this new model and our Innovation Center will be a key element in its success."
The $3.2 million project is the first structure in Kettering's Technology Park and it will be Flint's first LEED certified building, Sheridan noted. The facility was designed by the SHW Group (www.shwgroup.com), experts in high-tech laboratories for growth companies.
The 9,000-square-foot structure has a flexible internal lab configuration and will be the only laboratory business accelerator in the Genesee County region. Sheridan expects to have full occupancy within a year and provide a home to as many as 10 startup and emerging companies. Prismitech, a company that utilizes a new technology to create energy savings in refrigerated display cases, and Swedish Biogas International will be the first two tenants.
SHW Group designed the facility to be divided into public and private functional space, each supporting scientific and technologically-based 'start-up' companies that need dedicated laboratory space during their first three-to-four years of business. Amenities in the public space include a business center, furnished executive and administrative offices, a conference room with high-tech audio/video systems, a café dining and seating area, and a reception area. The private space will be home to six state-of-the-art wet and dry research laboratories. Each lab will be approximately 800 square feet and designed for easy reconfiguration.
Technology companies interested in the excellent research and nearby manufacturing and logistical strengths should contact Neil Sheridan at 810-762-9728 or techworks@kettering.edu. For more on Kettering's Innovation Center, visit www.kettering.edu/visitors/storydetail.jsp?storynum=3024.
Innovation Center fast facts:
* 9,000 square feet
* $3.2 million project
* Facility designed by: SHW Group, www.shwgroup.com.
* Groundbreaking: October 2007
* Grand Opening: Aug. 31, 5-7 p.m.
* Purpose: to provide resources and opportunities to grow high-tech entrepreneurship as a core strategy for the economic re-development of Michigan
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