Killeen research park vision taking shape

Killeen Daily Herald
By Thaddeus Imerman | Herald staff writer
Janaury 15, 2023

What is now three buildings and green space with developmental potential, the long-range vision for Texas A&M University-Central Texas includes a sprawling campus with multiple buildings and two collaboration quads, where students can socialize while university leaders meet to discuss the latest in academia.

The research park has been a dream of university leadership since separating itself from Tarleton State University and joining the Texas A&M University system.

Due to a federal grant award, the university hired Perkins & Will to be the design consultant.

Stephen Coulston, principal at Perkins & Will, said during a summit last week that A&M-Central Texas should invest in growing programs at the Forge (the name of the research park) that align with military and defense-related industry areas.

After the summit, he said he was encouraged by the conversations he heard spring up from it.

“I was really excited in some of the afternoon sessions as I was listening to representatives from the U.S. Army and Fort Hood and the folks at Operational Test Command on all the reasons why this research park is crucial to them,” Coulston said in a phone interview after the summit. “All the different partners coming in and saying that this needs to happen, and it needs to happen now.”

During the morning session of Wednesday’s summit, Coulston referenced the opportunity Killeen finds itself in geographically. Killeen sits just outside of what has been referred to as “The Texas Triangle” — an area that theoretically connects Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Houston in a triangular shape.

It is an area that contains a majority of the population of the entire state and produces a gross domestic product that exceeds $1 trillion annually.

“We really see an opportunity to sort of springboard off of the growth and development and innovation in this corridor,” Coulston said. “But it’s also anchored by this major component here, which is Fort Hood.”

Fort Hood is a major economic driver, contributing nearly $30 billion to the state’s economy annually.

The 2022 economic impact analysis of Fort Hood — compiled by the office of Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar — was not available as of Friday. However, in 2021, Fort Hood contributed nearly $28.8 billion to the state’s economy through GDP and disposable personal income.

Campus design and vision

Coulston explained the proposed design of the campus as intentional, reflecting a blended environment where the research and innovation meshes with academia.

“We’re really beginning to blend those intentionally in a very deliberate way with a component that I refer to as ‘bumpability,’ which is the intentional and purposeful design of spaces in places to create ‘accidental’ interactions,” Coulston said.

Marc Nigliazzo, the university’s president, agreed with the integrated approach.

“We believe the concept of having academia live, learn, and work alongside private industry is both desirable and attainable,” Nigliazzo said. “And our vision for Forge at A&M-Central Texas is just that — to have the university engaged with the way our community works, creating a viable environment where one is continuously engaged with the other, and where learning and industrial growth are integrated.”

Part of Perkins & Will’s consultation time included talking with the university and figuring out how the leaders wanted the campus to be designed in terms of offerings for students, such as recreation programs.

“About midway through the planning work that we just wrapped up for the research park, the university also engaged us to prepare an update to that 2009 campus plan, which was prepared before there was a full-blown Texas A&M-Central Texas. President Nigliazzo wasn’t even a president when that plan was completed,” Coulston said. “He (Nigliazzo) had made remarks multiple times during the course of work that (the 2009) plan doesn’t really reflect our institution and where we stand today, what our current vision and strategic plan looks like.

“We have initiated that campus-planning process and started looking more holistically at just what the university is trying to do.”

How long could it take for the vision to be realized?

“That’s the million-dollar question,” Coulston said.

It may not be as simple as designing buildings, getting funding and breaking ground.

In November 2021, Todd Lutz, the university’s vice president of finance and administration, explained part of the process of constructing a new building after a Senate bill signed by Gov. Greg Abbott allowed the university to receive $45 million to construct a Centralized Operational Reliability and Efficiency — or CORE — facility on the campus.

At the time, Lutz explained that all capital projects done on the campus must be approved by the Texas A&M University board of regents.

Academic leaders

Besides Nigliazzo, other leaders of the two postsecondary institutions in Killeen — Central Texas College and Texas A&M University-Central Texas — are both encouraged by the progress and the importance of the research park.

“The value of developing a research park on the A&M-Central Texas campus is tremendous,” said Russ Porter, A&M-Central Texas vice president for research and economic development in a news release. “It not only allows our faculty the opportunity to engage in meaningful scientific work, but it also provides a foundation for business and research partners within the region and beyond to collaborate with us to support their research initiatives, especially in defense, solar, cyber, and health care.”

One of the goals of the implementation of the research park is collaboration with neighboring educational institutions, such as Central Texas College.

CTC’s chancellor, Jim Yeonopolus, was present at Wednesday’s summit and said he thinks there is a common misconception that research is done by people with doctorate degrees.

“There’s a whole lot of jobs and things that have to be done, and those things need to have two-year degrees, they need to have certifications,” Yeonopolus said during a break in the summit. “That’s the thing that we do at Central Texas College.”

Yeonopolus said the goal of the college is to take the 600 soldiers exiting the military from Fort Hood on a monthly basis and tapping them into programs or certifications to begin their educational journey.

“We’re trying to get them in the mindset of coming through us and then coming up here to A&M,” Yeonopolus said. “They can get their bachelor’s degree and their master’s degree to move on into research.

“It does include us. I think people forget ... they just think well, they can jump from being a soldier to being a researcher at Texas A&M, and that’s not the case. Don’t forget us.”