Tech park grows through land acquisition

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BY MATT OLBERDING/Lincoln Journal Star

While the city, state and University of Nebraska wrangle over a proposed future research park at the State Fairgrounds, the university’s existing research and technology park has quietly expanded.

The University of Nebraska Technology Park bought an adjacent 12-acre parcel of undeveloped land from Universal Companies last fall.

The technology park did not publicize the purchase, which according to county real estate documents cost $500,000, until this week in a quarterly newsletter.

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Stephen Frayser is the president of the University of Nebraska Technology Park, which has expanded with the purchase of an additional 12 acres of land. (Robert Becker, LJS file)

Stephen Frayser is the president of the University of Nebraska Technology Park, which has expanded with the purchase of an additional 12 acres of land. (Robert Becker, LJS file)

Though the park’s buildings are currently full, President Steve Frayser said that’s not the reason the park bought the land.

There are about 112 acres of buildable land in the 151-acre park, and only about one-third have buildings on them, Frayser said

He said the land purchase was seen as an opportunity to provide a buffer between the technology park and an industrial area to the west and prevent a use on the land that might have been less than desirable from the park’s point of view.

“It was a onetime opportunity to pick up (the land) and so we did it,” Frayser said.

While there are no specific expansion plans for the land, which can accommodate a building of up to 105,000 square feet, that doesn’t mean it will necessarily sit idle.

In fact, Frayser said the park will be coming forward soon with a plan to change the zoning on the land from industrial to office and add the land to the park’s approved use permit.

He called the zoning change “a housekeeping kind of thing” that will make it easier to work with a potential tenant if one surfaces in the future.

The technology park, which was founded in 1996, is home to small start-up companies as well as large established companies such as Verizon Wireless and Cabela’s.

Reach Matt Olberding at 473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.