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The tall building in center is The Westin Huntsville in the Bridge Street shopping complex. In background is US Space & Rocket Center with its Saturn 1B and Saturn V (taller of two rockets). (Huntsville Times file photo/Michael Mercier)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — Despite federal budget struggles affecting the outlook for defense contractors, Cummings Research Park – home to thousands of technology, defense and life sciences professionals – is poised for further growth in 2013.

The nation’s second largest research park saw a number of gains last year. Wyle CAS Group announced plans for an $18.75 million facility. AEgis Technologies made $1 million in capital improvements. Companies such as Lockheed Martin, Decibel Research, ASI and Sigmatech all announced new jobs in 2012.

Bridge Street Town Centre based in Research Park is also experiencing growth. Last fall, Belk announced it would build a two-story flagship department store at the shopping center. The store, expected to open in 2014, will be surrounded by 45,000 square feet of additional retail space, a large sit-down restaurant, and 900 new parking spaces.“Year after year, Research Park has brought in high-tech sector jobs and above-average pay,” Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said in an interview. “It’s been the foundation of our economic development.”

The Chamber of Huntsville-Madison County is working to recruit around 27 new businesses to Huntsville, many of which could bring in anywhere between 200 and a few thousand jobs in a broad range of sectors, Battle said. At a price of less than $100,000 an acre, the city has kept the cost of land in the park relatively low – a key selling point for recruiting new companies.But Battle said the biggest challenge could be a good thing: What if the park is too successful and runs out of land too quickly?Research Park, founded in 1962, has around 430 acres left and sells around 40 acres a year, according to Research Park Director John Southerland. It still has a “pretty substantial amount” of acreage remaining, but at the current pace the park could run out of room in 10 years.

The growth of Redstone Gateway, an office/commercial complex at the northern gate of Redstone Arsenal, might slow that some as companies expanding in Huntsville or moving to the city now have another option.“Even though we expect there to be some government cuts, there is a still a healthy interest in land purchase and renting available space in the park, no question about it,” Southerland said. “We have several we are working on.”Southerland said the unannounced projects are in some traditional aerospace and defense sectors, but also include cybersecurity and other emerging markets that will help further diversify Huntsville’s economy. He said the park – and Huntsville’s economy as a whole – is already much more diversified than it was at the end of the Apollo program. Further diversification in the fields of geospatial, cybersecurity and green energy sectors will continue that. “There’s a lot of growth we’re looking at,” Southerland said. “It may come incrementally or in the form of small offices at first but the great thing is it all brings a chance to diversity. And soon enough, maybe we’ll have the next AdTran or Digium.”Adtran, a telecommunications equipment developer, is Huntsvilles only home-grown publicly traded company. Digium is a Huntsville-based software developer.

The success of the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology is also breathing new energy into Research Park. The Institute — which brings together life-science researchers and entrepreneurs – has already grown from housing 12 companies when it opened in 2007 to 24 and counting. Larger companies have since acquired four others previously housed at HudsonAlpha.

via Cummings Research Park: Still growing despite federal budget struggles Outlook 2013 | al.com.