By Doug Moore

From the soles of Nike shoes to precision parts for air bags, the products developed at Missouri Research Park reach virtually every corner of the world. Sleek, modern buildings continue to rise from the 750 acres of rolling hills that make up the research and development park on the southeast corner of Highways 40 and 94.

"What you have to realize is that 10 years ago, there was nothing here," said the park's executive director, Rick Finholt, as he drove his Jeep Cherokee through the winding roads of the park. The park is operated by the University of Missouri system, which broke ground on the site June 29, 1987.

Today, the park has 16 tenants. Buildings for three of those are under construction, and one is in the middle of a major expansion. The Federal Aviation Administration is building an $8.9 million, 50,000-square-foot air-traffic control facility. Westar Corp., which provides engineering services for such clients as the Department of Defense and Compaq Computers, is constructing a 40,000-square-foot building that 100 employees will move into in May.

The new $3.9 million Westar facility has pushed the research park over the 1 million-square-foot mark in building construction and up to 1,700 employees.

Consultant Lubricants is finishing work on its 20,697-square-foot building. The company develops lubricants for automated machinery. As diverse as all the companies are in the research park, they have one thing in common, Finholt said.

"They have all discovered a niche and they focus on that niche very narrowly," Finholt said.

"Finholt is proud of the blend of businesses that have located to what he often refers to as "my park."

"We have Fortune 500 companies such as Mallinckrodt and Nike to smaller companies such as Consultant Lubricants," said Finholt, who has overseen the park since 1989.

Linco Research Inc. is enjoying growing pains. The company is renovating a vacant building across the road from its existing 10,000-square-foot facility. In this case, the niche got bigger. Primarily in the diabetes research field, the company, a spin-off of Washington University Medical Center has expanded into cancer and obesity research.

Finholt said the park is developing slightly ahead of projections at about 100,000 square feet of building space per year. But it wasn't easy at the beginning, he said. Convincing tenants to move into a park where no one else was located was a challenge.

"The river was a psychological barrier," Finholt said. "But once you get things started, high-tech companies come in clusters,"

The research park serves as an anchor for the boom of development along Highway 40 from the park west to Wentzville, said David Leezer, director of business development for St. Charles County.

"The park was the impetus," Leezer said, "It put St. Charles County in that position of credibility with high-tech companies.

"High-tech companies usually bring with them high-paying professional jobs, Leezer said.

"It brings greater wealth to the county," Leezer said. The average salary in St. Charles County is $64,000, he said. And with that wealth comes the desire for better housing, improved schools and quality shopping centers, Leezer added.

Finholt said the Missouri Research Park was developed knowing that companies locating there would have employees seeking amenities.

Those include a golf course and country club along with walking and hiking trails that wind through picturesque hills and woods.

For Westar, the look of the park played a large role in selecting it over other sites, company Vice President Rob Toppings said.

"The walking trails and lakes, physical location and layout of the park are superior to anything we've seen," Topping said. Other sites were often times "scraped-off bottom land" with buildings squeezed onto small lots, he said.

"We have high-paid engineers and development people," Topping said of Westar's employees, whose average salary is $53,000 per year. It is important that there are amenities to attract and retain them, he said.

Westar is putting in an outdoor basketball court and shower facility. Toppings said he wished the design of the building would have included a bicycles storage area. "That's my one regret," he said.

Adding landscaping

Westar also was attracted to the strict provisions set forth by the research park.

"We're literally putting in hundreds of trees and shrubs," Topping said. Westar believes that investing in the property will preserve the value of the park, he said.

Westar also believes locating at the research park now is good timing.

"Within four or five years, we'll be right in the center of the hub of development," Topping said.

Already, the development around the park is impressive. Across Highway 40 from the research park, construction is under way on three 130,000-square-foot buildings for a new MCI WorldCom customer support center. It will house about 2,000 employees.

A recently completed $5 million Highway 40 overpass from the park to North Outer Road, now known as Technology Drive, will serve as the new entrance to the park. By 2005, entrance and exit ramps onto the overpass from Highway 40 to the park and Technology Drive should be completed. Also under construction is the $90 million campus for MasterCard International's technical and operations division, which will employ 1,600 in Winghaven, a residential and commercial development a few miles west of the research park.

A spot for world travelers

With all the success of the research park a few bumps in the road have been encountered. The park lost its bid for Express Scripts. And a grassy piece of land next to the country club is still without a hotel and conference center.

Finholt said the market for hotels is not good right now.

Topping said a conference center and hotel would be a perfect addition to the park. Almost weekly, client from around the world including Japan, Korea and Finland visit Westar, he said.

"There are still three four-acre lots and one 15-acre lot remaining for research and development companies to locate their operations. Along the golf courses 50 acres reserved for 300,000 to 500,000 square feet of office space, Finholt said.

The few remaining spots have been tough to fill because the prospective tenants want a lot size that is not available. It's just a matter of fitting the pieces together, Finholt said.

Meanwhile, Finholt is working to bring a stronger university presence to the park. He would like a graduate engineering program offered at the park.

The high-tech corridor including Missouri Research Park was not happenstance, Leezer said.

"This was a thought-out vision, not haphazard, where we can say we were lucky to get all this. This is the result of planned growth along Highway 40."