By Shelia Watson
Contributing Writer

The building complex, partially hidden as it is by a stand of trees along International Boulevard, might garner a description of “just another office building” were it not for the sign: “Trident Research Center.”

That sign labels it the location for the majority of the South Carolina Research Authority’s activities. In fiscal year 2007, its revenues totaled $94.1 million.

The $25 million complex, positioned on 20 acres of land with three buildings and more than 178,000 square feet of Class “A” office space, is adjacent to the Charleston International Airport. One of SCRA’s three research parks, the Trident Research Center is also one of the keystones of the organization’s asset sector, which provides infrastructure to support advanced research across the state.

“Last year the asset sector accounted for about 5 percent of our revenue, but it also generated $3.7 million in operating cash, which is about 40 percent of the cash that we developed,” said Bill Mahoney, CEO of the research authority. “It’s a very good business to be in.”

The other two parks are the Carolina Research Park, with 246 acres near Columbia, and the Clemson Research Park, with 265 acres in Anderson.

Mahoney pointed out that each of the parks is different, particularly in the management and structure of each.

“At the Trident Research Center, the Aviation Authority owns the land, and we have a long-term ground lease and own the building,” he explained.

“At the Carolina Research Park, we maintain the park, but we have sold most of the individual sites that are in the park to corporate tenants. They own the land, but we maintain the grounds and rights-of-way for a maintenance fee.

“At the Clemson Research Park, we had the same kind of relationship as we do at Carolina, but in 2007, we sold the remainder of the land in that park to the Anderson County Development Partnership, and we work with them to market the sites to prospective corporate tenants.”

SCRA also has plans for a new research facility next to Clemson University’s Innovation Center Building.

“It’s on the drawing board, and we’re hoping to get the green light to build in the next few months,” Mahoney said.

“What the park system represents is a sustaining economic development asset,” he said. “They are very attractive places for companies to locate. And not only are they assets for us, but they provide important assets for the companies that locate to them and for the companies that partner with us.”

For instance, Mahoney explained, in the research park system overall, there is more than 200,000 square feet of Class “A” office space with a variety of office space adaptable to most businesses as well as a variety of meeting and conference rooms with presentation and video capabilities. Each facility is equipped with next-generation Internet and teleconference capabilities as well as an expansive IT infrastructure base.

Mahoney noted that under SCRA’s facilities maintenance and management, the research park system provides a home for technology-based companies along with a suite of physical and digital assets to help grow businesses among a community of knowledge-based companies.

“That was one of the things we realized early on, that we had this vast digital asset in our IT capabilities,” Mahoney said. “And we’re leveraging that part of our company’s infrastructure more and more.”

Mahoney said one recent example is a three-contract deal SCRA signed with the South Carolina Health Sciences Collaborative that will make use of its supercomputing capabilities.

“It just makes sense, since we have this highly productive and high-performance research network infrastructure, for the Health Sciences to gain our support rather than them having to build their own system,” he said.

The digital assets also play a large part in safety and security management, which is a top priority for SCRA. The organization employs a team to advise, communicate and enforce policies and regulations dealing with security.

“That’s another huge advantage we have at the Trident Research Center,” he said. “It’s been evaluated as a place for IT backup and recovery. We’re out of the hurricane flood zone and one of the few places in the Charleston area that is accessible enough, being so close to the

airport.”

Mahoney pointed to the irony of the asset sector as a business unit that was “repositioned.”

“For years and years, we were open to the idea that if someone wanted to buy the land, that was great,” he said. “But then we looked around at what we had, and two of our senior people went out and got their real estate licenses, because if we’re going to be in the property management business, we need to have a license and know the rules and learn what the real estate business is all about.”

With the existing infrastructure in place, including the tremendous assets on the IT side, he said, it’s worth leveraging.

“Sure, this year, the asset sector was 5 percent of our revenue, but I don’t think it will be 5

percent for long,” he said. “It’s definitely going to grow.”

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