The History of University Research Park

An idea takes root

Led by WT Harris, a group of civic leaders who were tired of seeing Charlotte lose high tech R&D companies to the Research Triangle Park, Atlanta and other southern cities launched the University Research Park. To say it was an ambitious undertaking would be an understatement. The land, accessible only by horseback, jeep or helicopter, totally lacked the infrastructure that would be needed. UNC Charlotte, which had just become the UNC system’s newest university, had only 1,800 commuter students, no graduate degrees and no research programs. Charlotte’s growth patterns, which were creeping toward South Carolina, needed to be redirected toward the northeast, but that meant building water-sewer lines and augmenting the farm-to-market road system.

Undeterred, the community leaders put in place the governance, financing, covenants and vision that led them to recruit their earliest tenants in the late1960s. Collins & Aikman, a 125-year-old corporation that produced automotive fabrics, broke ground on a research and development facility on January 11, 1968. URP was launched, albeit on the UNC Charlotte side of I-85. The second tenant, Reeves Brothers, was also textile-related. They purchased the first land in what is now considered URP.

IBM is recruited

In 1970, IBM optioned 450 acres at $5000 per acre. However, landing and keeping IBM proved tricky. In 1972, IBM nearly sold 161 acres of its land to the Billy Graham Foundation. That same year, Charlotte leaders flew to New York to reaffirm their support and urge IBM to activate their plans. When IBM finally came to the Park in 1979, URP had to modify its covenants to allow the “light manufacturing” of ATMs on site. It seemed a small price to pay. Landing IBM sent a signal URP was an important economic engine; it also sent residential real estate prices soaring and sharply accelerated the need for major roads to the site. NCDOT was pressed into action and, to this day, still controls many of the roads internal to the Park.

Between 1979 and 1987, 12 tenants were in the park and employment had climbed to 8,000. Recruiting some of those tenants had to have been satisfying as when URP upset the Research Triangle Park and Atlanta to land EPRI, the Electrical Power Research Institute. In 1981, the Wall Street Journal opened a facility to receive data by satellite and print its editions for a four-state area. About the same time EDS and Verbatim bought and built on site.

R&D gives way to back office

Instead of research companies, for a number of years URP was home to a number of back office and call centers. URP’s largest tenant, Wells Fargo Customer Information Center (CIC), has over 14,000 employees. In fact, the 2.1 million-square-foot CIC rivals the Pentagon in size, boasts food courts, a day care center, medical facilities, beauty parlors and, naturally, a bank.

Landing TIAA CREF was a major coupe that took the combined efforts of a number of groups. Because North Carolina has a limited range of incentives, it took some creative collaborations to lure TIAA CREF out of their Manhattan offices. Ultimately it was the UNC Charlotte link that helped convince them to locate their southern operations nearby. When they opened in 2001, TIAA CREF brought workers from New York, many of whom did not drive. Others, who had sold expensive homes up north, took advantage of the opening of I-485 and bought in south Charlotte and into Union County. Their 30- minute commute on a new stretch of interstate seemed easy to them.

TIAA CREF has built a striking complex that was recognized in 2004 as the best corporate facility in the world by the Building Owners and Manager Association. Like Wachovia, TIAA CREF is self-contained with lush outdoor spaces that are more reminiscent of a resort than of an office complex. Of all the companies in URP, its link to the University is the strongest. When it needed new offices for an expanding work force, TIAA CREF leased space in a facility AT&T was selling instead of building on their current campus.

A win for tech transfer

Digital Optics (now Tessera) is a stunning example of UNC Charlotte’s technology transfer prowess. The company was born out of laser technology research done in the engineering department that led to the development of a patent for making more efficient, computer generated holograms etched on transparent materials. Incorporated in 1992, Digital Optics was recognized by Inc magazine as one of the fastest growing companies in the country when it posted 2000% growth over 5 years.

In 2000, Digital Optics announced plans to buy URP land to build a 100,000 square foot facility for offices; manufacturing and research where they produce the wafer-thin optics technologies used in camera phones. In 2006, California- based Tessera Technologies bought them for $59.5 million.

New announcements and recent sales

Recent announcements indicate things are changing in the Park. High Associates, which owned property on the far side of Mallard Creek Church Park, bought Prosperity Pointe at the Mallard Creek Church and Mallard Creek intersections.

SPEED purchased the 78,000 square foot Verbatim building for $7 million and in six months constructed a high tech broadcast center – quite a feat for a building where floppy discs were once manufactured. While they had considered locating uptown near the NASCAR Hall of Fame, proximity to the Speedway and having their own building were enticements. So were grants from the One North Carolina Fund, which assists the state in industrial expansion, and matching City and County grants totaling $967,000. SPEED planned to invest $38 million in its first 3 years.

One of Doug Smith’s major stories before retiring from the Charlotte Observer was that the Louis Rose Building, once home to both IBM and First Union Mortgage, had been sold to local business owner David Bowles. Looking for a building to consolidate his operations, he purchased Louis Rose and launched a massive renovation that has made it URP’s first LEED platinum building and one of the state’s first in LEED-CS (Core and Shell) pre-certifications. More importantly, Bowles has made the building a learning lab for green energy efficiencies and is collaborating with major vendors on pilot projects.

Innovation Park takes shape

IBM, once URP’s poster child for high tech, had substantially cut back its work force, leaving much of its former facility struggling to change over to multi-tenant. After the owner defaulted on its loan, BECO bought the 12 building complex and began an aggressive rehabilitation, taking much of its cues from amenities at the GOOGLE campus. Now named Innovation Park, the complex is adding two fitness centers, nature lounges, day care credits, terrazzo floors and its own set of bikes that can be checked out. The MD-based owners have formed BECOSouth and already landed one of the region’s largest 2010 leasing deals – the 180,000 square foot Classic Graphics.

While IBM had already planned to leave its old complex, it chose to remain in URP, taking most of the Enovia Building, the last new building erected in the park.

Electrolux consolidates North American operations

In December 2009, Electrolux's North American headquarters announced it would be leasing URP’s former First Charter Corp. building to establish its North American headquarters in Charlotte, adding at least 738 jobs to the region over the next five years. The global appliance maker leased the 225,000-square-foot former First Charter headquarters building in the URP for the consolidation of seven business units. Electrolux North America will invest $8.3 million in the new headquarters. It was the largest corporate relocation to Charlotte since 1984, when insurer Royal & SunAlliance USA moved here. By summer of 2010, the first phase of that move had been completed.

In making the announcement, Electrolux’s Kevin Scott cited the good transportation access including proximity to the growing number of international flights from Charlotte Douglas as factors that lured them here. He could not resist asking for a direct flight to Stockholm, something other University City companies like IKEA, Husqvarna and University Volvo are sure to second. By spring of 2011, Electrolux was announcing another expansion.

615+ acres remain

URP has much to recommend it. In addition to being covenant protected and master planned, it has redundant power sources, multiple fiber rings, a campus style setting and one of the City’s few remaining sites where 100+ acres can be easily assembled. The park enjoys easy access to two major interstates, is a 15-minute drive to Charlotte Douglas International Airport and is even closer to the Concord Regional Airport, which is heavily used by NASCAR teams. A study done by the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce shows that even at p m peak travel times URP is a 15-minute drive for 556,000 people and 998,000 are within a 30-minute afternoon commute– both of which make URP either the second or third most accessible of the 15 employment nodes the Chamber studied.

Three research-zoning categories were created just for the Park “to provide areas in which research and related operations may be established and may be given assurance of wholesome surroundings in the future.” Also mentioned is its “spacious and extensively landscaped settings with emphasis on aesthetic and environmental considerations.” As a follow up to the City Council approved Area Plan for the research park, University City Partners has just gotten City Council approval for a text amendment to the Research Zoning (RE).

Increasing Amenities Nearby

A number of amenities are adjacent to URP with more opening all the time. On Mallard Creek Church Rd. and across from the multi-tenant buildings, there are several new commercial centers offering access to restaurants, retail (including the city’s second Trader Joe’s), medical and other professional services. Behind that commercial area is a subdivision with homes in the $150,000 to $225,000 range. A number of well-established residential communities radiate off adjacent roads, giving URP’s 25,000 workers easy access to good housing options.

The area near URP contains 2,100 hotel rooms, over 200 restaurants and 230 shops. While the western side of I-85 has increased in its shopping and hospitality offerings, the majority of the retail and hospitality development remains clustered on the other side of I-85, near North Tryon/Highway 29 on a stretch that is scheduled to hold the light rail line. However, the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) plans to enhance shuttle service to give URP easier access to light rail. Of further note, the Park N Ride lot inside URP feeds into one of CATS fastest growing express bus services and the Graham street line cuts through the Park and links to center city. CATS reports that Route 11 to UNC Charlotte is now the system’s busiest.

Although the major hospital (CMC University) is across I- 85 on the proposed light rail line, another cluster of medical offices are at Mallard Creek and Harris. Likewise there are small medical offices around the Ben Craig Business Incubator and up along Prosperity Church, offering excellent access to medical services.

Until approval of the new RE 3 zoning code, residential zoning had been prohibited inside the major URP envelope. Using the MUDD zoning, the Worthington developed with restaurants, offices and apartments across Harris Blvd from Wells Fargo’s Customer Information Center. That mixed-use development may eventually have as much as 400,000 square feet of offices, 36,000 square feet of separate retail, and nearly 600 apartments above the retail space on 54 acres. Worthington’s owners hope to add another 285 apartments on 12 acres they own nearby. Additional mixed-use is under consideration around URP in an effort to reduce travel time of workers.

Places to play

Adjacent to Wells Fargo CIC is the University YMCA with a 70,000 square foot building, indoor pool and outdoor water park and ball fields situated on 33 acres. Some URP tenants have worked with the Y instead of building their own fitness facility. More recently, Innovation Park has contracted with the Y to provide fitness classes to their 3000+ workers.

URP’s stretch of the greenway is still privately owned, although the County Park and Recreation Department has expressed interest in taking it over. Park and Rec has also approached LNR and others to donate greenway land. With the just completed Toby Creek project through UNC Charlotte, this part of the Carolina Thread Trail has become the longest completed portion, moving from high end residential around Radbourne, under Mallard Creek, I-85 and North Tryon to Harris and University City Blvd.

While the Tradition is the nearest golf course, there are other courses and golf communities nearby. Likewise, there is easy access to a range of public parks. However, URP workers need only step outside their offices to enjoy a nature preserve filled with wildlife.

And places to learn

Meanwhile UNC Charlotte has grown not just in number of students (25,000+) but also in programs (19 PhD, 59 Masters and 81 undergraduate degrees). The University leads the nation’s universities in cost efficient patents applied for and in start-up companies. Its incubator, the Ben Craig Center, which is on URP’s western edge, will move to campus in a few years. UNC Charlotte’s technology portal, the 100-acre Charlotte Research Institute, continues to expand, adding both buildings and corporate ties.

The innovative Governor’s Village campus that includes two elementary, a middle and high school that was begun with help from IBM remains and gets support from URP tenants like TIAA CREF. The area council of the Chamber of Commerce is focusing major attention on getting it back to its original purpose as an innovative public school complex.