High-Tech Company Buys Industrial Building for $7.7M

ST. PETERSBURG, FL-Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc., a Cambridge, MA-based research and development company, has purchased a 41,000-square-foot industrial building from Oerlikon USA for $7.7. million. The facility, located at 10050 16th St. N in St. Petersburg, is made up of 23,000 square feet of office and 17,000 square feet of class 100 clean space.

The Switzerland-based seller had the building, along with an adjacent 60,000-square-foot structure, constructed for itself in 2000 in order to run its high-tech facilities, says Bill Alton, NAI Tampa Bay's VP of industrial, who brokered the deal. The seller has now consolidated its operations into the adjacent building.

Draper will use the facility to design and produce its microelectromechanical or MEMS technology—tiny computer chips used to make miniature mechanical devices, many of which are used by the Department of Defense and NASA. The purchase is part of the company's expansion into the state of Florida, inspired by between $20 million and $30 million in city, county and state incentives. Approximately $15 million of the incentives are from Florida's Innovation Incentive Fund, which seeks to draw research institutes to the state.

Draper is also establishing space, starting with 10,000 square feet, in Tampa on the University of South Florida campus where it will work in partnership with the school to apply MEMS technologies to medical problems such as infectious diseases. The new facilities are expected to create 165 high wage jobs averaging $75,000 per year.

"These centers will provide an excellent opportunity for Draper Laboratory to further its work in developing technology solutions to some of the nation's most critical problems in healthcare, security and energy," said Draper president & CEO James D. Shields in a release. Executives at Draper were not available for further comment by deadline.