Space Coast Hopes New High Tech Research Center Creates Jobs

Exploration Park Building A

Can new park lure high-tech jobs to Space Coast?
13News

It’s been touted as what will become the premier place for aerospace research, and its location has been the premiere place for space missions since they all began.

Exploration Park is a facility officials said they hope will bring high-tech companies to the Space Coast, and save high-tech jobs soon to be lost when the shuttle program retires.

The park will be built right near the Kennedy Space Center, where for 50 years the United States has sent astronauts into orbit and achieved missions of exploration.

The team is looking to woo industry and jobs to the park, all as thousands of shuttle workers are set to lose their jobs when the program ends either late this year or sometime next.

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Exploration Park Building D

Exploration Park
Project Description
(via Space Florida)

Overview

Space Florida has partnered with The Pizzuti Companies to develop a mixed-use technology and commerce park known as Exploration Park at Kennedy Space Center (KSC).  Kennedy Space Center has established a flexible, long-term area development plan for Exploration Park. Exploration Park is ideally located on KSC grounds in close proximity to launch, payload processing, and technical labs operated by NASA and by the U.S. Air Force on neighboring Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Details

Phase 1 is a 60 acre parcel and is soon to be under design/construction by Space Florida and its selected Master Developer, Pizzuti.  Up to 315,000 square feet of planned floor space will be available for research/lab facilities, processing and light manufacturing, and offices. In addition, NASA and Space Florida plan to incorporate the existing 100,000 square foot Space Life Sciences Laboratory into the park, broadening the lab’s accessibility and use beyond NASA.  Phase 2 of Exploration Park consists of an additional 139 acres positioned adjacent to Phase 1.

The park is serviced with all necessary utilities and emergency services, and will offer sites ready for development and/or leases within dedicated or multi-tenant facilities.

Impacts

• Create high numbers of high-paying research and development and high-technology business jobs in the state of Florida; aids in absorbing the expected job loss associated with the retirement of the Space Shuttle
• Expand access to and use of capabilities of the Space Life Science Lab, a state of Florida asset with a direct operational connection to the International Space Station National Lab;
• Attract tenants that advance the mission of Space Florida to foster the growth and development of a sustainable and world leading aerospace industry in the state of Florida, with emphasis on commercial, academic, and governmental synergy;
• Promote the development and use of technologies that contribute to space exploration and the preservation of Earth’s environment.
• Offer close proximity to the launch and payload processing operations of KSC and neighboring Cape Canaveral Air Force Station outside the Center’s gated-controlled access area.