Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Carnegie Village to Offer Live-Work Space for Entrepreneurs



The City of Owensboro in conjunction with the Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corp. will announce plans today for a new development adjacent to downtown Owensboro called Carnegie Village. The anchor project in Carnegie Village is the Centre for Business and Research. With additional funding from the Daviess County Fiscal Court, the Centre for Business and Research is a 37,000 square foot business accelerator and research facility to meet the growing demand for lab, research, and high technology company space. It would also allow the growth of university level applied research and further cultivate high technology companies through the Emerging Ventures Center for Innovation.


Centre for Business and Research will provide infrastructure for prospective high tech companies similar to the way the Mid-America Airpark provides the needed infrastructure for industrial development. The current growth of plant biotech companies associated with Kentucky BioProcessing (KBP) has created a demand for biotech lab space. Area colleges and universities can utilize the new lab facilities to promote applied research and business commercialization.

The Centre is part of an overall proposed urban village development called Carnegie Village, a “hot spot” for redeveloping the downtown adjacent area of the city. The location at 9th and Allen can be a catalyst for the creation of a pedestrian corridor along Allen Street linked to the central downtown district.


The development is located to the east in the same block as the new Ryan Park and the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art. To the west are the planned Police Training Facility, the planned J.Z. Moore Village and Historic District and the new Germantown Park. The historic Union Station complex is to the immediate south of the development. To the north sits Brescia University. The property in the parcels adjacent to the Centre will be developed by the City of Owensboro Community Development Department in conjunction with the Placemaking model created by the Gateway Planning Group. Preliminary plans include the mixed-use residential and commercial developments in a walkable urbanist format giving the entrepreneurs from the Centre the opportunity for a unique living and working experience in an urban environment.

No comments: