Trustees for the University of Illinois have approved the purchase of a downtown building to house the planned UIS Innovation Center, designed to provide a hub for technology, business, policy and workforce development.
The university announced Thursday that it approved the purchase of 401 E. Washington St. for $950,000 from the Illinois Sheriffs Association, to provide a home for the university’s workforce initiatives. ISA currently has its main office in the building.
The three-story, 26,400-square-foot building will be renovated and modernized, with design work scheduled to start later this year and construction likely starting in 2024.
The site will be the home of the university’s Innovate Springfield program, currently housed on the Old State Capitol plaza, as well as offices for university staff, labs for entrepreneurs and developers and collaborative space for the UIS Center for State Policy and Leadership and other groups to develop public policy.
The new facility will be part of the Illinois Innovation Network, a university-sponsored program that has plans to build 15 facilities across the state with a focus on bolstering the state’s economy.
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New UIS Chancellor Janet Gooch in a release said the new site would provide a significant boost for the city and the region, while also providing the possibility for economic growth.
“With their action today, trustees have flipped the switch on what I believe will be a powerful machine for innovation, economic development and positive change for UIS, the state capital and the entire region,” Gooch said. “The UIS Innovation Center will be a magnet for bright people and brilliant ideas, providing a broad range of opportunities for our students and faculty, a key addition to the foundation of downtown Springfield and bold, new links between the city and the rest of Illinois.”
Bruce Sommer, director of economic development and innovation for UIS, said the new facility would provide more space for business development, particularly with Innovate Springfield, a project that continues to grow with each passing year.
“Ever since it came over to the university, we’ve been growing that,” Sommer said. “We’re going to double the size of that where we’ll have a greater capacity for programming and entrepreneurs to locate there. About half of (the 24,600 square feet) will be utilized for business incubation.”
The site proved to be a good place for UIS with its downtown presence and its proximity to places such as the state Capitol and the city’s medical district.
“We drew a pretty specific line around downtown – we knew we wanted to be downtown within proximity of the Capitol, especially for the public policy things, other industry partners and the medical district,” Sommer said. “This property sits in the middle of that, somewhat close to the Third Street rail in anticipation of that being transferred over to 10th Street, having more green and open space and having an avenue into the medical district. This property was within that boundary.”
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U of I President Tim Killeen said that the new facility will continue the process of connecting each corner of the state through the program and its facilities.
“IIN was created to serve as a transformative network of networks, harnessing the brainpower of our state’s public universities to collaborate on local and regional issues and create opportunities that benefit Illinoisans from the Ohio River to Rockford and every point in between,” Killeen said in a release. “Bringing the UIS Innovation Center to life is a crucial step.”
The facility is scheduled to open in January 2025, with Sommer saying that it will provide a presence in downtown for the university in a way that could provide a big impact in a variety of different fields.
“Creating new jobs through creating new companies and expansion of existing companies is a central focus,” Sommer said. “This center is not limited to UIS students and faculty, it’s also the community. Whenever we can get faculty and students interacting with the community that way with our industry, I think there’s wins all around. I hope some of those wins are new ideas that get scaled across Illinois to help make government more efficient and effective with new and innovative public service programs, as well as new startup companies.”