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News Record First Project in Rockingham's Research, Technology Park By Dan Wright
Site preparation has begun on
the $16.7 million SRI International research facility north of Harrisonburg. "We hope to start foundation work around Feb. 1," Hull said. "Walls should start going up around May-June time frame." The company will use tilt-up construction, a process in which the walls are formed on-site before a crane lifts them into place. "Nielsen does this on a regular basis," Hull said. "It's faster than masonry wall work." Tech Park's First Tenant SRI's facility is the fist project in the new Rockingham County Center for Research and Technology on U.S. 11 just north of the city. The county is "in discussion with other interested parties, but nothing has been finalized," said County Administrator Joseph Paxton. The Board of Supervisors awarded the SRI contract to Nielsen after a competitive bid process, Paxton said. The contract was awarded under guidelines of the Virginia Public Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act of 2002, according to Jim DeLucas, Nielsen's chief development officer. The act is a tool that public entities use to procure services in the private sector, DeLucas explained. "That allowed us to be involved in front end of the project," DeLucas said. "So we have influence over both the budget and the design." When the building is complete, SRI will enter into an agreement with the county to pay for the facility. "It's exciting to work with SRI," DeLucas said. "This has created a great buzz in the community." SRI Already At Work Nielsen will coordinate the work of Washington, D.C.-based architectural firm HOK and two engineering companies, ECI of Roanoke and LJB of Dayton, Ohio, Hull said. Nielsen also will have about 20 subcontractors at work during various stages of the project, he added. Meanwhile, SRI, a nonprofit research center based in California, already has begun work at its temporary location in Burrus Hall at James Madison University, said Krishna Kodukula, executive director of CADRE's biosciences division in the Shenandoah Valley. The firm has eight full-time employees, five of whom are at the Ph.D. level, Kodukula said. "We're hiring 10 new positions this year," he added. "Of those 10, seven will hold advanced degrees." Kodukula expects the staff to expand to 25 by the time they move into their new facility and to grow to 100 over about a five-year period. They are working in a "broad category of infectious diseases," he added. "These are high-technology positions," Kodukula said. "We're involved in advanced research in biotechnology." Go to www.dnronline.com for more news.
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