Jason Mann

On Nov. 15, local dignitaries and university officials broke ground on the Innovation Center, the first building to be constructed on Innovation Campus.

“The people will move; population centers will be where research is,” said State Representative Larry Tidemann. “We have carved out South Dakota’s niche with the Innovation Campus.”

The Innovation Center is a 28,000 square foot building that will house Innovation Campus administrative offices, conference rooms, laboratories and incubator companies. Innovation Campus will be a research park where private companies and SDSU faculty and students work together. The campus will sit on 125 acres of what is currently open space east of 22nd Avenue North and south of the U.S. Highway 14 bypass.

Innovation Campus is the creation of the SDSU Growth Partnership, a coalition of local groups-SDSU, the SDSU Foundation, the city of Brookings and Brookings County-as well as state legislators and several private businesses.

“What happened was we took all of these entities and put them in a sack, and if you knew some of the personalities in that sack, you knew it wasn’t going to sit still,” said Don Larson, a Brookings County Commissioner. “Today, the proof is in the pudding in what partnerships can do? Just look behind us.”

Innovation Campus Director Teresa McKnight says that the Campus will serve as a “conduit” to move ideas from SDSU and Brookings into the global marketplace.

The Innovation Center is expected to be finished in October 2008.

#1.883069:3917706058.jpg:groundbreakingJN.jpg:President Chicoine makes a ground-breaking scoop with Theresa McKnight and other members of the SDSU Growth Partnership. :