Leaders Hope New Business Park Will Mean Big Things For Wise’s Economy

WISE, Va. – On Thursday, the Lonesome Pine Regional Business and Technology Park was a construction site full of heavy equipment and populated by energized dignitaries.
But one day, UVA-Wise Chancellor David Prior said, “this may be a Los Alamos, this may be an Oak Ridge. It may be a mini-Research Triangle.”
Prior, who leads the college that sits almost adjacent to the industrial park site, was among a dozen or so local, state and business officials participating in Thursday’s formal ground-breaking ceremony for a $7.7 million energy research center at Lonesome Pine.
Funded with grants and loans from the Virginia Tobacco Commission and the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority, the Appalachia America Energy Research Center is expected to energize the region’s economy. Local leaders also said the work expected at the center could lead the way for scientific breakthroughs of global significance.
“It’s neat stuff, like Star Trek Stuff, things you wouldn’t have thought possible,” said Tim Hopkins, president of Pulaski, Va.-based NanoChemonics, the nanotechnology research company that will be the energy center’s largest tenant.
NanoChemonics develops materials for commercial application and will occupy 24,000 square feet of the energy research building. Hopkins said his company will focus its research there on clean coal technology, environmental remediation and coal-to-liquid fuels.
Nanotechnology involves working with materials on a molecular level. “When you get down to that level,” Hopkins said, “all of a sudden it’s new chemistry.” He likened the pioneering work in technology to the pioneers’ exploration of this region more than 200 years ago: blazing new trails.
“We’re evolving into the nanotechnology area and it has the potential to really allow clean coal technology pre-combustion,” Hopkins said.
Another 10,000 square feet of space in the center will be left for other energy researchers.
Those at the ceremony Thursday said the funding for the project, a $5.7 million grant from the tobacco commission and $2 million in grants and loans from VCEDA, is one result of a network of partnerships in the region.
“This is not happening by chance,” Delegate Bud Phillips said. “We’re all very hungry to see things change in the region for the better.”
Delegate Terry Kilgore, also at the ceremony, said the center could be the start of opportunities for future college graduates in the region.
“We’ll be able to work with the college here to make sure maybe some of our students will be coming up here and finding jobs and not having to leave our region,” Kilgore said. “We look forward to making a lot more announcements like this over the next few months, few years, as this park continues to grow.”
VCEDA Executive Director Jonathan Belcher said the energy technology field is the industry of the 21st century; and “our area is sending a message that we’re going to be an important player in energy and energy research.”

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