St. Louis—The recruitment of talent has become a key concern for many US corporations, and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is launching a new project that will allow businesses to forge close relationships with its growing student population. The school, located in the St. Louis metro area, has signed a deal with Balke Brown Transwestern to develop its 330-acre University Park into a mixed-use business park with commercial office, research and development, and technology space.

“Right now, the school has a lot of land that is not being fully utilized,” Mike Hurley, vice president of Balke Brown, tells GlobeSt.com. And that space also creates a barrier between the campus and the town. “We're going to bridge that gap, and create a stepping stone from the city to the university.”

The student body, 14,000 strong, is a significant asset for companies, he adds. And although the new development could initially have some retail, along with the potential for some housing, the developers will concentrate on creating high-end, modern class A office buildings of glass and brick. “It's going to be a site for research and development and technology.”

However, “it's not going to be a bunch of cookie-cutter office buildings.” The developers will pay a great deal of attention to aesthetics, and tenants will have access to a lot of greenspace, hiking trails, coffee shops, and other amenities.

“We have a blank canvas here, and can create as much or as little as we like,” Hurley says. Conceivably, the space available could hold a couple million square feet of office space, but Balke Brown has a goal of leasing out around 300,000 square feet in the next year-and-a-half. Interested companies can choose to construct their own building, or “we can do a build-to-suit for them.”

Companies on site will have opportunities to forge close relationships with university officials and professors. This could include helping to design or adjust curriculums so students' education better fits the workplace.

Instant Insights /

Developers Bridge the Gap Between Town and University

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