| Blue Springs Park Can Help Innovate Area into a Better Future September 25, 2009
Kansas City Business Journal
Mike Braude
 One of my favorite people at one of my favorite places, the University of Missouri, is Mary Anne McCollum. A former mayor of Columbia, she is Manager of Constituent Relations in the University Affairs department. She recently invited me to come to Blue Springs to meet with Mayor Carson Ross, Blue Springs Economic Development President Brien Starner and civic leader Bill Wrisinger to discuss a joint Blue Springs-University of Missouri project. That project is the Missouri Innovation Park at Blue Springs. Ten minutes into our meeting, I readily understood why Mary Anne is so excited about this park.  The park is an approximately 500-acre science and technology innovation project that will provide a clustered focus for knowledge-based innovation and commercialization. It is a joint venture of the Blue Springs EDC, the city of Blue Springs and MU, which will be the main tenant. As anchor tenant, MU will concentrate on research collaboration as a true partner in this knowledge-based community.
The park will be a huge win for the city of Blue Springs. Brien Starner gave me some perspective. He told me: "Twenty years ago, Blue Springs was a hot spot, the Missouri-side juggernaut. Then, even with its strong demographics, the Rip Van Winkle syndrome stepped in, and economic development fell off. This project puts Blue Springs back on track." The site, at the Adams Dairy Parkway exit from Interstate 70, is a natural. It is adjacent to RED Development's Adams Dairy Landing retail project and includes what now is a lovely public golf course. I asked for an example of how the synergies might work. Robert Duncan, MU's Vice Chancellor for Research, provided it. Duncan said that "continued and increased collaboration between biotech firms and academia will occur at the proposed Mizzou Center, including joint research with scientists from both areas working together, as well as fee-for-service projects. As an example of the latter, not long ago, University of Missouri researchers worked with pharmaceutical companies, providing radioactive isotopes to help diagnose and treat several types of cancer, including tumors and relief of pain for metastasized soft-tissue cancers. One example is the drug Quadramet, which relieves pain associated with bone cancer." The park will look for tenants whose strengths align with MU's three areas of technology emphasis: the convergence of human and animal health, food for the future and sustainable energy (especially nuclear and bioenergy). I cannot imagine three more cutting-edge spheres. I like this project because I believe it will establish a solid economic base for job creation in our area in the science and technology sectors. I think it will do wonders for the high-value, long-term economic development of the very important eastern side of our metro area. Finally, it will be a state-of-the-art facility that will be a vital center for the activities of our state university in the western part of Missouri. I foresee the park being a home run for its three partners and, more important, for our entire metropolitan area. Michael Braude
lmbraude@aol.com
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