ICAR needs more cash for roads

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City officials originally planned to build three roads at ICAR with the $12 million, but now say that unexpected costs forced them to use almost all of the money on the first two roads.

They have asked U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis of Greenville to try and secure $8 million in federal money to build more roads at ICAR, a research park that Clemson University is developing along Interstate 85 in Greenville near the intersection with Laurens Road.

The city would also use the money to improve nearby Fairforest Way, where developers plan a global trade center. The city promises to chip in $2 million of its own if Inglis can secure the federal funding.

Thousands of people could eventually work at ICAR, but initial employment is expected to be in the hundreds. The first jobs will come from a Clemson graduate school of automotive engineering and a BMW information technology research center. State officials have allocated money for both of those buildings, and the BMW research center is already under construction.

Inglis said the city's request for road money is part of a wish list of road improvements he's collected from around his 4th District, which includes Greenville, Spartanburg and Union counties and the northern tip of Laurens County.

Many of the items won't get funded, but the ICAR project is an "easier sell to Congress" because the world-class research planned there aligns "the local interest with the national interest," Inglis said.

Inglis, on his second go-around as 4th District congressman, has been criticized in the past for not supporting federal funding for local projects. More recently, he's promised to bring home money from Washington if it's "consonant with the national interest."

Inglis said Congress may have more interest in funding roads at ICAR because of the research park's proximity to I-85, a federal highway.

The Greenville Republican also said his new job as chairman of the Research Subcommittee of the Science Committee puts him in a good position to help ICAR. From that position, he said, "We will be able to oversee national research policy and help authorize funding for those areas critical to Upstate development."

Clemson's long-term plans for ICAR include a wind tunnel and laboratories to study electronics systems, safety/crashworthiness, fuel economy and alternative fuels. The university hopes the research will attract more corporate facilities as has happened at university research parks in other states.

City officials said ICAR needs new roads to connect to two main thoroughfares already built in the research park: the four-lane, tree-lined Millennium Boulevard and the two-lane Innovation Drive. The city oversaw their construction.

"The ICAR project is probably the single most important economic development effort that we have going," said Jim Bourey, city manager.

"It could result in 20,000 jobs for the entire region, and we think it's critical that the city and other entities do their part to support it. In order for that to go forward, we're going to need significant infrastructure, especially roads."

Bob Geolas, ICAR director, said Millennium Boulevard and Innovation Drive provide access to the graduate school and the research center, but that Clemson will need other roads to develop more of its 250-acre research campus.

"What we need to start thinking about is the other sites and how we make them available," Geolas said. He said Clemson does not have money to build roads at ICAR. The research park will also need parking garages, Geolas said.

ICAR is not the only development that could benefit from the road building. It could also help Millenium Campus, a private development on five properties that nearly surround the ICAR site.

One of the Millennium properties, a 150-acre office park contiguous to the 250-acre ICAR campus, has recruited a corporate tenant, Hubbell Lighting. Hubbell, a manufacturer of lighting equipment, plans to put its corporate headquarters in the office park.

The Millennium Campus is being developed by Rosen Associates Development Inc. That company said in a statement that it didn't participate in the city's request for federal road money but supports it.

Phil Lindsay, city engineer, said the city spent more than originally planned on the first two roads in ICAR partly because it didn't anticipate having to pay for right of way and signaling equipment to build two railroad crossings.

Of about $700,000 spent on the railroad crossings, $150,000 for right of way went to a Greenville County-controlled corporation that owns tracks at the site, he said.

The city also decided to build four bridges, instead of pipe culverts, so as not to disturb wetlands and trigger a cumbersome federal regulatory process, Lindsay said. He said the city should have about $500,000 of the original $12 million in state road money left when finishing touches to Millennium Boulevard and Innovation Drive are complete.

Max Metcalf of Greenville, a member of the board of the State Infrastructure Bank, which allocated the $12 million in 2002, said costs for road and bridge projects the bank funds sometimes rise over original estimates.

"Over time, we recognize the cost of the project can go up due to various factors," Metcalf said.

The $8 million sought from the federal government and the $2 million match from the city would also be used to improve Fairforest Way, whose intersection with Laurens Road is directly across from ICAR's main entrance.

The city, in an application for road money sent to Inglis, said it wants to "dramatically upgrade the appearance and function of Fairforest Way, effectively creating a new business park to complement the ICAR development."

The city said Fairforest Way has "great potential for growth" since it provides access to "hundreds of acres of well-located, developable land."

Among the facilities already located on Fairforest Way are a Duke Power operations center, the Bayne Machine Works factory and a U.S. Post Office. Coming soon is a global trade center designed to help Chinese companies penetrate the U.S. market.

Greenville developers Vivian Wong and Peter Kwan are planning the trade center in the former Carolina Circuits factory. Their Pacific Gateway Capital Group is investing $6 million in the project. In addition, they are working with officials in Tianjin, China, who have agreed to invest another $2 million.

Wong said Fairforest Way is an "awful, awful road" that needs improvement. "I think I can get the whole community, this Fairforest Way community, to support that," she said.

The city said in its application that it has spent more than $100,000 to maintain Fairforest Way over the past five years.