Construction To Start Today On Research Park Laboratory
By Susan K. Brown
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
August 11, 1992
Novus International Inc. will break ground at 3 p.m. today on a 40,000-square-foot laboratory at the Missouri Research Park at Weldon Spring.
Novus is building in the 750-acre Missouri Research Park at U.S. Highway 40/61 and Missouri Highway 94. The park is owned and managed by the University of Missouri.
When the building is finished in the middle of next year, it will house about 20 scientists and technical professionals, said Joe Lucas, the marketing manager. The architectural firm is Stone Marraccini & Patterson.
Novus, which has its headquarters in Town and Country, makes methionine, an amino acid that is added to poultry feed for optimal growth. The trademarks for the feed supplements are Alimet and MHA.
Lucas said Novus had picked the site in St. Charles County primarily because it is near the company's poultry research center in Dardenne. While the company has no formal ties to the University of Missouri, Lucas said, ''Given the aspirations of the University of Missouri in creating a technology and research park, it seemed to fit in real well with our need.''
Scientists at the laboratory will research how the animals process the supplements Novus makes and how new compounds work in the animal agricultural market, Lucas said. Actual work with chickens and turkeys will take place at the Dardenne farm, he said.
Novus International sells to feed companies or integrated poultry operations in more than 45 countries, Lucas said. Until last year, when it was bought by Mitsui & Co. Ltd. and Nippon Soda Co. Ltd., it was a unit of the Monsanto Co.
Novus has other regional centers in Singapore, Mexico City and Brussels, said Sarah Collins, a spokeswoman. It has a production plant in Chocolate Bayou, Texas, near Houston.
Those scheduled to attend the ground-breaking include managers from Novus, Chancellor Blanche Touhill of the University of Missouri at St. Louis, Vice President James McGill of the University of Missouri, university curators, David Harrison of the Missouri Department of Economic Development and representatives of the Regional Commerce and Growth Association, St. Charles County and Weldon Spring.
