The Oregon Institute of Technology has moved a step closer to creating a multimillion-dollar research and development home for the Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center northwest of Portland.
On Monday, Oregon Tech’s Board of Trustees voted to buy a Scappoose building for $4.15 million (£3.26 million) to house the research and development center.
The Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center is a collaboration among industry, government and higher education to develop tools, techniques and technologies to help meet regional manufacturing challenges. The collaboration includes university research, community college training and apprenticeship programs.
Oregon Tech is contributing $1.75 million (£1.38 million) toward the purchase, with the remaining $2.4 million (£1.89 million) coming from Business Oregon, the state’s business development agency.
OIT’s portion comes from its earlier sale of a Portland area property.
The Scappoose deal includes a 33,816-square-foot building and 10.46 acres. The steel-framed, metal-walled structure has 20,700 square feet of high-bay space suitable for manufacturing R&D, a 1,500-square-foot room for conference and instruction activities, 15 offices and three rooms for laboratories.
