EUGENE, Ore. – (March 13, 2012) – The first construction project in 14 years at the Riverfront Research Park will be celebrated on March 14 by the building’s two primary tenants, its developer and the University of Oregon.
The $17 million, 80,000-square-foot building at 1700 Millrace Drive will be home to the Oregon Research Institute and the Educational Policy Improvement Center. Both nonprofit organizations have strong ties to the UO, which has cooperated with private developers to encourage university-related enterprises on the 67-acre research park adjacent to campus.
Speakers at Wednesday’s 2 p.m. construction celebration at the building site will include Steve Wells, senior managing director for the Portland office of developer Trammell Crow Company; ORI research scientist Carol Metzler; EPIC founder and CEO David Conley; and Kimberly Andrews Espy, the UO’s vice president for research and innovation. Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy is also expected to speak at the event, which commemorates both the project and the collaborative research that will be done at the new building.
Site work for the new ORI/EPIC headquarters building began in December, and construction is well underway. Trammell Crow officials say that about 70 percent of all work on the project will be done by subcontractors from the Eugene area or the Willamette Valley. Construction will generate an estimated 70,000 hours of work.
Trammell Crow, a real estate development firm with offices across the country, will develop the siteand then lease out space in the building.
The state Board of Higher Education cleared the way last summer for construction to begin between a pair of existing Riverfront Research Park buildings that house several high-tech companies and university spin-offs. The site is south of the railroad tracks that run through the research park, leaving a largely undeveloped area between the tracks and the Willamette River.
Original plans called for the building to be placed in a riverfront section of the research park, but UO officials asked the developers last year to consider an alternate location.
ORI, created in 1960, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the study of human behavior. It is regularly one of the top 50 nonprofits nationwide in receiving federal funds – primarily from the National Institutes of Health.
EPIC – which will lease about 10,000 square feet in the new building – works with schools, districts and other policy makers to promote college and career readiness and help students prepare for post-high-school success.It was founded in 2002 by David Conley, a UO professor of educational policy and leadership, to work in collaboration with the university’s Center for Educational Policy Research.
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.
MEDIA CONTACT: Joe Mosley, UO media relations, 541-346-3606, jmosley@uoregon.edu
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