BUILDING OUR CITY

Innovista lands 2nd tenant

USC president announces plan by Collexis to join research campus

By JAMES T. HAMMOND - jhammond@thestate.com

Collexis Holdings Inc., a homegrown developer of information search systems, is the second tenant for Innovista, USC’s new research campus in downtown Columbia.

University of South Carolina president Andrew Sorensen announced the new tenant Wednesday in his state-of-the-university address.

“I am delighted that Collexis will become part of Innovista,” Sorensen said. “As we work to strengthen our economy, we must have the ability to attract companies that will provide high-paying jobs and have a vested interest in the Midlands.

“Collexis aligns very nicely with our research in alternative energy and fuel cells, the health sciences and computing. It is exactly the type of company that we want to have here.”

University officials have said they expect to announce more tenants for the research campus by year’s end.

Collexis will be located on the third floor of the Horizon II Building, on the block bound by Assembly, Blossom, Main and Wheat streets. Horizon II is expected to be ready to occupy in November 2008.

Bill Kirkland, chief executive officer of Collexis Holdings, said his company has committed to at least 5,000 square of space in the building at Blossom and Assembly streets, to be built by North Carolina developer Craig Davis.

“We have enjoyed a very productive partnership with the university through our joint projects with the Office of Research and Health Sciences and the School of Library & Information Science,” Kirkland said.

Collexis expects to have at least 20 people staffing its worldwide corporate headquarters there, said Kirkland.

Average pay was not available.

Harris Pastides, USC vice president for research and health sciences, said Collexis “really is a global operation.”

“Even their German and Dutch research partners will be welcome here,” Pastides said.

John Parks, executive director of Innovista, said Collexis presents opportunities for collaboration with other companies.

“Collexis is the second tenant slated for Innovista and is representative of the fast-growing technology companies we are seeking to attract,” Parks said. “Its location in Horizon presents many opportunities for collaboration with other companies that we are in the process of recruiting.”

USC announced in March that Duck Creek Techonologies of Bolivar, Mo., a provider of software for insurance carriers, would become Innovista’s first tenant and occupy the fifth floor of the Horizon II Building. Duck Creek plans to have 200 employees earning salaries starting at $85,000, Sorensen said.

Horizon II is one of two Horizon Center buildings that will focus on research in alternative fuels and information technology.

Other buildings include the Public Health Research Center, which opened last year, and two buildings that will form Discovery Plaza, a center for biomedical researchers in cancer and the neural sciences. One Discovery building will include the Center for Brain Imaging and research programs for the South Carolina Cancer Center.

These projects make up Phase One of Innovista, a $250-million investment by the private and the public sector and have 580,000 square feet of space.

Reach Hammond at (803) 771-8474.