Meadow Brook Corporate Park is slated to become an innovation district.
The news was confirmed by Jackson Pruett, city of Hoover economic development coordinator.
The Hoover City Council will pay The Waymaker Group, a Dallas-based consulting company, $150,000 to develop the plan for transforming the corporate park. The company's tasks include interviewing stakeholders, defining area industry sub-sectors primed for investment, analyzing research and development and entrepreneurial activity in the area, assessing the area's workforce, recommending ways to develop talent and facilities, preparing the district to receive funding, proposing partners, creating a comprehensive real estate strategy and much more.
Options being considered for the park include laboratory space, business incubator spaces and co-working spaces, according to Pruett, who added that the work is expected to be done in six to nine months.
The city of Hoover will partner with property owners, employers and its economic development allies to advance the vision of an innovation district at the Meadow Brook Corporate Park, according to Hoover Mayor Frank V. Brocato.
"The Innovation District Ecosystem and Development Plan, being conducted by Waymaker Group, will provide a roadmap for creating a new home for innovation in Hoover," he said in a statement to the BBJ. "This project will allow us to plan for future innovation assets and prepare our city for the jobs of tomorrow. Today's economic and real estate environment call for creative thinking and our team is excited to embark on this planning process."
Innovation districts are on the rise across the country, though the concept isn't exactly new.
A report from the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings called them a "complementary urban model," which are geographic areas where leading anchor institutions and companies cluster and connect with startups, business incubators and accelerators. Ideally, they are also "physically compact, transit-accessible and technically-wired and offer mixed-use housing, office and retail."
