Park launch opens auto research era

Left to right: Dr. Helmut Leube, president of BMW; former South Carolina governor Carroll A. Campbell Jr.; South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Clemson President, James F. Barker turn the spades at the site of the Clemson research center. Staff/Ken Osburn e-mail this story to a friend Related Related stories: • Complex could change industry • Park may put NASCAR in gear • Auto park potential boon for south end of city • Greenville looks to auto park to drive economy • BMW driving force in auto park's future • Greenville Tech, other colleges enlisted to participate Photo gallery • Clemson, BMW launch auto research center

Clemson says the park will be the first of its kind and promises to make Greenville a research hub for the automotive and motorsports industries. Also, International Business Machines Corp., the world's largest information technology company, and Microsoft Corp., the No. 1 software maker, said they would participate in the park and reveal more about their roles later.

Michelin North America Inc., the Greenville-based subsidiary of the French tire maker, said it will also participate in the park, in a capacity not yet defined.

None of the companies said how many people they would employ at the 400-acre campus, located along Interstate 85 near its intersection with Laurens Road.

BMW said the four-story, 80,000-square-foot research center would rise next to a graduate school of automotive engineering that Clemson has previously said it will build in the park.

The school will be named the Carroll A. Campbell Jr. Graduate Engineering Center after the former governor who recruited BMW's first U.S. plant to South Carolina in the early 1990s.

All of the company announcements, except Michelin's, came during a groundbreaking ceremony at the park site.

Gov. Mark Sanford told 400 guests gathered under a tent that the park heralded a "giant step forward in terms of economic development in South Carolina."

Helmut Leube, president of BMW Manufacturing Corp., said BMW will move company research projects that are currently scattered in various locations into the building as soon as it's constructed. It's expected to open in late 2005.

Clemson has been planning a research presence in Greenville for more than three years as part of its program to be recognized as a top 20 public university.

"This is what top-tier universities do for their state and for their citizens," Clemson President Jim Barker said during the groundbreaking ceremony.

BMW said the research center will house laboratories for conducting research on prototype vehicles and include space for "partnering companies." It will also have secure research areas and an "incubator" for nurturing startup ventures.

BMW previously announced a $10 million donation to endow professorships at the graduate school. Also, it helped secure $25 million to build the school by making that amount part of what it got from state officials in exchange for a 400-worker, $400 million expansion at its Greer plant.

The state is also kicking in $15 million to build the research center. It will be owned by Clemson and leased by BMW.

Todd M. Kirtley, general manager, industrial sector, IBM Global Services, said his company will initially provide $1.1 million worth of software and consulting to support the campus.

Once IBM consultants help define key research projects, "IBM will line up and support those key projects with additional considerations to be defined at a future date," Kirtley said.

"We couldn't be any more enthusiastic about the opportunity, but it would be inappropriate to announce a contribution before we understand the full scope of what those projects will be," he said during an interview.

"Over time, we're very interested in enhancing our own presence in the area, and it could be possible that a major commitment from IBM could be evaluated. But we're going to wait and see," Kirtley said.

IBM announced in September that it was joining forces with BMW to concentrate on the automotive industry's push to put more advanced software and electronics in cars — a trend it believes will transform the industry by 2010.

Charles Johnson, Microsoft's managing director of manufacturing solutions, announced his company's support for the park but said he couldn't say whether Microsoft would have a physical presence on the campus.

"That is up for discussion," Johnson said. "I'm sure we will have some support."

Johnson said Microsoft is working with BMW in various areas of research: real-time design collaboration, supply chain integration and electronic interaction with customers before and after car purchases.

The research projects "will be announced step by step, initiative by initiative, throughout the remainder of the year," he said.

Michelin North America did not make an announcement at the groundbreaking ceremony, but Nan Banks, a spokeswoman for the company in Greenville, said Wednesday Michelin will play a role in the park.

"We're going to determine the form that support will take as the project unfolds," she said.

Michelin, which already has a research and development operation in Greenville County, sees Clemson's park "as something that will expand and enhance the activities we already have here in the Upstate," Banks said.