UA Tech Companies to Make May Moves

Several technology companies are prepping to move their offices around the University of Arkansas, the Genesis Technology Incubator and the Innovation Center located at the UA Research and Technology Park in south Fayetteville.

Phil Stafford, president of the University of Arkansas’ Technology Development Foundation, said the Foundation is finishing out about 10,000 SF of space at the 35,500-SF Innovation Center. The space has been left unfinished since the building opened in August 2004.

The center will have two new tenants. Arkansas Power Electronics Inc., a Genesis client set to graduate from the program, will take the available 6,300-SF space on the second floor. The University of Arkansas Foundation Inc., the organization that secures private financial support for the UA, will round out the available 3,700-SF space on the first floor. Both entities currently lease space across the road in the Genesis complex.

The space APEI vacates will then be divvied up among four incoming Genesis clients: NanoMech, SFC Fluidics, BioDetection Instruments and Vegrandis — all clients of Calvin Goforth’s Virtual Incubation Corp.

Stafford said the four fledgling companies have been in the “facilities access program,” which has provided small offices on the UA campus, and that they’ve all outgrown their current workspace.

The work should be complete by mid-May and allow the companies to make their moves. When the dust settles, Genesis will have 15 clients, Stafford said.

The development center for Lynguent Inc. will expand and occupy the space that was leased to the UA Foundation. Lynguent is an analog/mixed-signal design engineer, headed by Alan Mantooth, professor of electrical engineering.