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NCR building will become UD research center

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University of Dayton officials say the college will invest heavily in renovating the 455,000-square-foot former NCR headquarters to serve as a research institute.

Staff photo by Ron Alvey University of Dayton officials say the college will invest heavily in renovating the 455,000-square-foot former NCR headquarters to serve as a research institute.

'We’re going to put a tremendous amount of money into turning this facility into a research facility'

By Thomas Gnau, Staff Writer Updated 2:08 AM Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Six months ago, some in Dayton wondered how the loss of NCR Corp.’s headquarters would alter the community’s identity.

After the University of Dayton announced Monday, Dec. 21, that it has purchased the former NCR headquarters building, many are hailing the $18 million acquisition that will let UD give the building a scientific and technological focus that it hasn’t seen in perhaps decades.

Michael McCabe, UD’s vice president for research and executive director of the University of Dayton’s Research Institute, said UDRI needs space and resources that the 455,000-square-foot building will offer. UDRI went from $38 million to more than $96 million in research last year alone, McCabe said.

Until now, the building has housed mostly administrative functions tied to NCR. McCabe and John Leland, UDRI director, said that will change under UD’s stewardship in a dramatic way.

In fact, McCabe said, the university will have to renovate.

“That building is office space,” he said.

“We’re going to put a tremendous amount of money into turning this facility into a research facility,” Leland said. “It was substantially an office building.”

State Sen. John Husted on Monday recalled a meeting between local officials and NCR representatives last winter and marveled at how far the community has come since then. Husted said he left that meeting last winter thinking: “NCR was leaving.”

“The great things we’re celebrating today didn’t come about by choice,” the Kettering Republican said. “It came about by necessity.”

An NCR spokesman would not say how many employees the company still has in the building at 1700 S. Patterson Blvd. The company declined to comment on the transaction beyond a prepared sentence from Jeff McCroskey, NCR global operations vice president.

“NCR is proud to complete this transaction with the University of Dayton,” McCroskey said. “The prominence and unique nature of the property make this sale beneficial for the University of Dayton, and we are confident that this property will provide benefit to the community of Dayton for years to come.”

University of Dayton sponsored research and development (R&D) by the numbers

$96.5 million: The amount UD was awarded in research sponsorship for fiscal 2009
177: Undergraduate students engaged in sponsored research
109: Graduate students engaged in sponsored research
25: Ranking of UD among all colleges/universities nationally for sponsored engineering R&D
11: Ranking of UD among all colleges/universities nationally for federally sponsored engineering R&D
2: Ranking of UD among all colleges/universities nationally for sponsored materials R&D
1: UD’s ranking among Catholic colleges and universities nationally for sponsored engineering R&D

Source: UD

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