Innovation center at SEMO looks toward fall start

Southeast Missouri State University is wooing a director candidate for a technology park that's now 410 acres of farmland along Interstate 55 north of Cape Girardeau.

No buildings are on the site, and construction of an interstate exit there won't begin until 2006, but interviews started Tuesday to find an executive director for the Southeast Missouri State University Innovation Center.

School officials envision a complex designed around attracting new companies to the region and helping create jobs. They want buildings at the site new businesses can lease quickly and grow into.

A man with an extensive background in managing such facilities, Dennis Roedemeier, spent much of Tuesday interviewing for the post.

During the recent state legislative session, lawmakers approved $300,000 in cash and more than $100,000 in tax credits for the region's innovation center, said board of regents president Don Dickerson. This will be the state's fifth such project. The others are associated with University of Missouri sites in Rolla, Columbia, St. Louis and Kansas City.

"With it comes some money, not a whole lot, but enough to start the thing up and get it going," Dickerson said.

University President Dr. Ken Dobbins said the time is now to begin the candidate search.

"We're just ready to start with the innovation center concept," he said. "There is no reason to wait."

The university advertised the director position in Missouri newspapers, said Art Wallhausen, associate to the university president. A search committee reviewed about six applications and chose Roedemeier's as the first to be interviewed.

Roedemeier was the only applicant who met all of the required qualifications in the job description, Dobbins said.

Today, the candidate will meet with various people in the community, both on and off campus, and they will send evaluation cards to the committee. The committee could then issue a recommendation to hire him, and the board of regents would make a final decision.

Wallhausen said he wasn't sure what sort of salary range is being considered for the director post. Roedemeier earns $116,159 in his current job as director of Business Development Group with the Missouri Department of Economic Development, according to the official state manual.

He was president of the Cuba Industrial Authority from 1983 to 1988, bringing 12 companies to the city and watching sales tax revenue increase 30 percent.

Eye on region

Roedemeier, a former business owner, has had his eye on Southeast Missouri for a while now, he said, talking with DED director Joe Driskill about development along the I-55 corridor.

"This would be brand new in the Cape Girardeau area," he said. "It's an environment that, as an entrepreneur, I find fascinating. No one's ever done it. There's never been an innovation center here before."

Dickerson is hoping a new innovation center director can get things underway by this fall.

"We've got a lot of planning to do, and we need someone with his business experience and background to do this," he said.

A $6 million interchange at I-55 and East Main Street at Jackson will begin in 2006, said Missouri Department of Transportation district engineer Scott Meyer, providing access to the innovation center. The future technology park is on the east side of the interstate off County Road 618.

Having an actual building to lease to a company is imperative, Roedemeier said.

"You cannot show people open spaces and expect them to move into your area," he said. "Somebody has to put up a building. You've got to have a commitment."

If he's picked as director, Roedemeier intends to have a marketing study done of the region, he said. That would include a look at existing businesses, finding out what level of capital -- money -- is available from banks for lending, evaluating the talents of the available workforce and reviewing what technology is available in the region.

Whoever is chosen to be director will have an office at the former First Baptist Church building on Broadway, purchased by the university. In addition, there may rooms set up as labs and conference areas.

mwells@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160