Could Centennial Campus work in Nebraska?

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By MELISSA LEE / Lincoln Journal Star

RALEIGH, N.C. — Lesson No. 1: Success begins with the right street names.

The entry to this campus is Varsity Drive. A few blocks over are Achievement and Capability. There’s also Partners Drive, Alumni and Research.

With names like that, seems you can’t go wrong.

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Centennial Campus is North Carolina State University's vision of the future. This "technopolis" consists of multi-disciplinary R&D neighborhoods, with university, corporate, and government facilities intertwined. A middle school, residential housing, executive conference center and hotel, golf course, town center and recreational amenities will weave the campus into a community. (Courtesy photo)

Centennial Campus is North Carolina State University's vision of the future. This "technopolis" consists of multi-disciplinary R&D neighborhoods, with university, corporate, and government facilities intertwined. A middle school, residential housing, executive conference center and hotel, golf course, town center and recreational amenities will weave the campus into a community. (Courtesy photo)

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Take note, University of Nebraska officials: The little stuff counts.

Indeed, there is much to learn from Centennial Campus, the crown jewel of North Carolina State University, nearly 1,300 miles from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Widely regarded as one of the top research and development campuses in the nation, Centennial has done what UNL now only dreams of: It has earned national notoriety with its on-campus mix of university research and private business, a mix scholars believe jump-starts economies and speeds technological advances.

NU leaders want to bring that mix to Lincoln, where, they say, State Fair Park offers 251 fertile acres next door to campus for research and development.

They have much standing in their way: fair leaders resistant to moving to an alternate location, a governor unsupportive of pouring public money into the project, taxpayers wary of how a research park would benefit them.

But fresh off a trip to North Carolina, those NU leaders are more sure than ever that Nebraska must act now or miss out on countless jobs and dollars.

“I’m a big believer that states need to invest in education and research,” NU President J.B. Milliken said. “Anything you can do to build on the strengths of your university is going to have positive impacts on the state.

“(A research park) makes sense for Nebraska.”

This might be a good time to mention Lesson No. 2: You’ve got to be patient.

A long history

Centennial Campus was born 23 years ago when then-North Carolina Gov. James Hunt granted N.C. State about 385 acres of land a mile away from its main campus. The land had been occupied by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a state-run mental health facility.

Until then, Hunt felt the university was landlocked. More space, he argued, was the only way it could accommodate its growing population and research programs.

And he threw a pioneering idea into the mix: Why not invite private developers onto campus so they could help university researchers quickly turn their ideas into commercial products?

“There were naysayers: ‘You must be crazy to think a project like this could succeed,’” said Amy Lubas, Centennial’s current partnership developer.

“Some people thought the university had no business doing that. But we had a governor who wanted this to happen, and none of the detractors had a good enough reason to give us pause.”

The resistance continued as the university began crafting its master plan.

N.C. State leaders decided the research-intensive College of Textiles would be the first academic unit to move to still-bare Centennial.

Textiles faculty protested, accusing the university of sending them into exile, Lubas said.

“The faculty said, ‘No way. This is horrible. We don’t want any part of this.’ They fought it tooth and nail.

“Eventually the university said, ‘This is how it’s going to be, and you’re going.’”

Two decades later, the textiles college is thriving, and N.C. State’s engineering college is on its way to Centennial.

And Centennial can at last call itself a success story, thanks to a mid-1990s economic boom that saw major construction on campus, positive responses from North Carolinians and private businesses and, just maybe, a touch of good luck.

Today, Centennial boasts 2.7 million square feet of developed space in 25 major buildings, a well-designed, 1,344-acre campus and millions of dollars in public and private investments that have helped build housing, research facilities and an alumni center. An 18-hole golf course is planned.

Each week, Centennial welcomes visitors who wonder how they can adopt the campus’ model for their own states.

A couple of weeks ago, it was NU’s turn to watch a PowerPoint presentation over sloppy joes and coffee.

NU regents and other administrators also visited Research Triangle Park between N.C. State, Duke and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and met with UNC leaders hoping to build a research campus called Carolina North.

Heading to the airport on their way home, they offered up a verdict: Nebraska can’t afford to fall behind.

“This is what I’m feeling,” Regent Jim McClurg of Lincoln said. “If you’re expanding your university these days, (a research park) is what you do.”

Mixed feelings

Other Nebraskans are less enthusiastic.

A research campus at UNL likely would mean the State Fair would be forced to move, perhaps to the Lancaster Event Center at 84th Street and Havelock Avenue, or to Kearney, Grand Island or Sarpy County.

A recent Legislature-sponsored study found an ideal State Fair would cost $175 million. More recommendations from that study, like where the best place for the fair would be, are due later in the fall.

Ultimately, the Legislature will decide the fair’s fate, said Sen. Phil Erdman of Bayard, chairman of the Agriculture Committee. He hopes for a decision in the upcoming session.

Erdman isn’t ready to weigh in on the fair debate, but he said he hopes a research campus in Lincoln would benefit the entire state.

“We’ve got a campus that’s 500 miles wide, as the president likes to say, and Nebraskans want to see that in action,” he said. “(A research campus) shouldn’t be just between East Campus and City Campus.

“That’s a fantastic idea, but you realize that’s probably less than a mile, and you’ve got 499 more to go to make sure you’re not neglecting the state.”

Heineman has said he won’t support moving the fair if it involves new tax dollars.

And to the fair’s executive director, Barney Cosner, saddling taxpayers with a $175 million burden to move the fair when it’s doing just fine at its century-old location isn’t an option.

“It’s all about the dollars,” Cosner said. “I dream just as fast and just as hard as anybody else. The ideal would be a tremendous dream for all of us.

“But again, who’s going to pay for it?”

It’s a question yet to be answered in detail by supporters of a research campus. Developing the fairgrounds would take years and tens of millions of dollars, or more — dollars NU doesn’t yet have.

Milliken and UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman are confident private funds would come through. Milliken says tax dollars also would be tapped.

“I would never say there would be no public investment in this,” said the NU president, who as a former UNC administrator is well-versed in North Carolina’s research history.

“The academic buildings — of course they would come from state dollars.”

Cosner and others question whether the university uses the space it has now effectively.

They point to NU’s Technology Park, where one of the latest companies to set up shop, Verizon Wireless, is not spun off from NU research.

It’s true the Verizon call center could bring as many as 800 jobs to Lincoln and is one of the largest economic development deals in city history. Still, Cosner isn’t convinced the university needs even more space for research and development.

“What happened to the tech park?” he asked. “Is it not workable? I don’t understand.

“Until somebody comes up with the dollars, I think we all can speculate and dream all we want. The State Fair Board has committed themselves to living within their means.”

Milliken praised development happening at the Technology Park — 11 companies are housed there, according to its Web site — and said the park would continue to evolve whether or not UNL builds on the fairgrounds.

“I don’t believe we are choosing one strategy and eliminating all others,” he said. “I think they can complement each other.”

Where’s the proof?

NU also might struggle to win over the public without hard evidence Centennial has benefited North Carolina’s economy.

Yes, there are anecdotes of success: several hundred internships and jobs for N.C. State students that wouldn’t have opened up had private companies not moved onto campus.

Red Hat, a software developer with headquarters at Centennial, has an average employee age of about 30, and many workers are N.C. State students or graduates, said Tom Rabon, executive vice president of corporate affairs.

Other companies also are encouraged to hire students and partner with faculty on research projects, Lubas said. Centennial is home to multiple multimillion-dollars research grants, likely aided by university-business pairings, she said.

“Ultimately, Centennial Campus will have a big impact,” she said. “It helps North Carolina draw big companies. It creates new jobs.

“But a project like this is not going to change an economy overnight.”

Even after 23 years, Centennial lacks an economic impact study that would detail how many jobs it has created, how many dollars it has generated for the state and how it has affected the region’s tax base.

The campus is rounding up the $100,000 necessary for such a study, Lubas said.

It’s a report some NU regents are eager to see.

Legislators might be more likely to pump money into a university project if they knew it would bring benefits, Regents Chairman Chuck Wilson of Lincoln said.

“That will be a key question,” he said.

Asked Regent Randy Ferlic of Omaha: “What’s the payout? We need to know the payout.”

North Carolina also has a leg or two up on Nebraska in other critical areas: Lincoln doesn’t have a major airport, for example, while the Raleigh-Durham International Airport is a short drive from Centennial Campus.

And North Carolina is home to four universities ranked in U.S. News & World Report’s top schools: Duke at No. 8, UNC-Chapel Hill at No. 28, Wake Forest at No. 30 and N.C. State at No. 85. That’s clear evidence, North Carolinians say, that the state is invested in education and is home to some of the country’s top minds.

UNL is just below N.C. State at No. 91, but it is the only Nebraska school on the list.

NU leaders long have been known to pooh-pooh such rankings.

N.C. State and UNL have plenty of similarities, Milliken said, such as strong agriculture and engineering research programs.

He also pointed out that UNL’s academic success has soared in recent years. And last year, for the first time, UNL topped $100 million in research funds. The milestone grabbed headlines, but, UNL officials say, it also made painfully clear how squeezed for space the university is.

Prem Paul, UNL vice chancellor for research, has said faculty have even begun to turn down grants because of a lack of space.

State Fair Park, right next to City Campus, could be the ideal fix, university leaders say.

Milliken thinks Nebraska could enjoy some of the same success North Carolina has had. And he doesn’t want to see his state miss out.

“Will our faculty continue to do great research that benefits Nebraska? Absolutely,” he said. “Will our students graduate prepared for high-paying jobs here and elsewhere? Certainly.

“But a research and development campus is a dimension that has added significantly in other states, and I would hate to see us miss an opportunity to add value in new ways in Nebraska.”

Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.