Two of the province’s top research parks are firing up their engines in a bid to bolster future development opportunities.

In a series of moves, officials in both Calgary and Edmonton are working on ways to shift gears and strengthen their respective ventures.

University Research Park in Calgary, which traces its roots back to 1966, and Edmonton’s Research Park, about 25 years old, are getting a second look at a time when the province itself is moving forward with plans to unleash the full potential of Alberta’s innovation sector.

In Edmonton, developments are advancing on a number of fronts – including a move to “reposition” the park’s image – but the most visible will be construction crews in the city’s southern quadrant.

“After a period of slow development, we’re seeing things pick up in the park again,” said Myron Borys, vice-president economic development at Economic Development Edmonton (EDE).

The new buildings, the first for the research park since 1999, “promise valuable new opportunities for Greater Edmonton’s burgeoning technology startup and growth
sectors as they seek to meet their business location needs,” said Borys.

Two construction projects are on track for 2004, a two-storey, 40,000-sq.-ft. multi-tenant building and a 30,000-sq.-ft. facility that will enable an existing tenant to remain in the park after outgrowing its current space. But Borys expects that number to increase.

“We’re in discussions on about five other building projects. Not all of them are going to go, but we feel one or two of those may also proceed in 2004.”

Further growth could arise from a possible new multi-tenant biotechnology centre to be located in the park. EDE is having a business plan and preliminary design prepared for the proposed undertaking, an initiative of Edmonton’s biotech cluster.

“Edmonton has a perennial problem with companies
graduating from the University of Alberta that have nowhere to go. There is no specialized space they can lease while they’re in their early stages and growing,” said Borys.

“They go through a period of five to 10 years where they need to rent space somewhere.”

A 2003 feasibility study showed that there was strong demand for this type of facility, he added.

The plan, being prepared by Barr-Ryder Architects, is expected to be completed by May. Construction could start as early as 2005.

In Calgary, however, construction isn’t yet on the agenda. The University Research Park’s four primary stakeholders – the City of Calgary, University of Calgary, Alberta Infrastructure and Calgary Technologies Inc. – are in the preliminary stages of developing their Phase 2 master plan to map out that park’s remaining potential.

“What we’re going to do is start with a vision of what we want the park to be and that vision will be created by multiple stakeholders,” said John Masters, president and CEO of Calgary Technologies.

“The visioning exercise will start by mid-March and be completed by the end of April.”

From there, they’ll proceed into detailed master planning followed by business case analyses focused around specific development opportunities. Masters said it would be premature to discuss exactly what directions future prospects may focus on.

But one item up for discussion will include the park’s Alastair Ross Technology Centre. The 120,000-sq.-ft. building has been running at 100-per-cent occupancy for the past few years, said Masters, and it is the only park facility geared to incubating technology companies. “It is one of the elements of the master plan,” he confirmed.

In its early years, the park was focused on the energy sector. Today, however, it represents a much broader spectrum of Calgary’s advanced technology sector. Even though less than 10 acres of greenfield space remains in the park, there are no expansion plans in the foreseeable future.

“Our opinion is that we have an underutilized amount of space in the park and the park has the advantage of being strategically located next to the university. The downside of that is that there isn’t any land available adjacent to the park’s boundaries, but we think that there are some untapped opportunities to create more critical mass, more density,” said Masters.

Size is not an issue in Edmonton, although land adjacent to its research park is now home to South Edmonton Common, Canada’s largest big-box power centre.

Half of the current research park remains undeveloped, while another 100 acres of land could potentially be accessed, said Borys.

“The challenge was the park not developing as fast as people had expected it to,” said Borys, referring to the creation of a retail dynamo next door and the fact that it took 25 years to fill half of Edmonton’s research park. “If the current half had developed earlier, South Edmonton Common would have been a different story.”

Nevertheless, future prospects are looking much brighter. “There’s definite interest, even within the current regulations that we have. But it’s going to be limited – a pent-up-demand situation,” Borys said.

Current regulations and restrictions on what businesses can locate in the park provide a perception that the park can only serve a narrow clientele. To ensure continued growth, EDE wants to reposition the research park.

“Our role here is to help create an environment where technology companies can flourish. We still want some controls,” said Borys. “We’ve got to broaden some of the (park’s) definition without losing the unique position of the park.”

To accomplish this, changes will be needed in the way EDE and the City of Edmonton now run the park. EDE operates the park on behalf of the city under a management agreement.

“The city owns all the land and buildings, so sometimes that causes some confusion with potential developers as far as who they need to talk with,” said Borys.

RESEARCH PARKS
* Calgary’s University Research Park is the largest non-
institution employment node in the city’s northwestern quadrant. There are seven buildings in the park, ranging in size from 60,000 sq. ft. to more than 250,000 sq. ft. With the exception of one location, the Alastair Ross Technology Centre, all the buildings are standalone, with no connection to other buildings.
* Edmonton’s southside Research Park has 17 buildings with more than 600,000 sq. ft. of lease space and about 1,500 employees located throughout the park. There are nine biotech companies in the park, making it the largest concentration of biotech companies in the province, according to Economic Development Edmonton.