The University of Missouri system and the Missouri Department of Economic Development will cut a ribbon today to open their 62-acre research park at Fort Leonard Wood.

The park consists of a partly finished 18,000-square-foot building designed for companies, agencies and consultants that do business with the Army.

The partners have the same market in mind for the 10 or so more buildings they expect to add over the years.

The first building will come with separate offices for several occupants plus shared reception, conference, café and business-office areas. Several prospective tenants exist, said Rick Finholt, the park’s director.

Finholt, also director of the University of Missouri’s research park in St. Charles County, said the park had passed “a rigorous market-demand analysis.”

The university and the development department are splitting the costs, including $2 million for the building and $500 a year for each acre they use. In turn, they will collect rent from tenants.

After paying 7 percent of net revenue to the Army, the university will get 55 percent of what’s left, with the development department getting 45 percent.

Finholt said that once it’s full, the first building would generate $25,000 to $30,000 a year for the park’s partners.

The partners believe that the park is the first of its kind on a U.S. military base. Joe Driskill, the state’s economic development director, said that the university has a major role to play in economic development and that the best state economies today are being powered in part by major universities.

The ribbon-cutting will take place as part of a meeting by the university’s Board of Curators.