National Institute of Aerospace

National Institute of Aerospace Unveils Plans for New Location

January 31, 2003 - The Board of Directors of the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), a newly formed center for cutting-edge aerospace and atmospheric sciences research and graduate education, has approved in principle a plan to move into a state-of-the-art facility in a new high-tech research campus in Hampton Roads Center North Park in Hampton, Va.

The building will be developed and owned by Craig Davis Properties, Inc. on property that will be acquired from the city of Hampton's Industrial Development Authority. The project will be constructed by W. M. Jordan Company. The architect is Clark Nexsen Architects, with engineering provided by Vanasse Hangen Brustlin. Little and Little of Raleigh is the master planner and landscape architect. The first building will be delivered in early 2004.

Earlier this month the NIA set up temporary initial headquarters in an office park in Hampton. Once the new building is finished near the corner of Magruder and Commander Shepard Blvds. the Institute will have a facility built specifically to house a research staff and foster distance learning technology, as well as a location on a major thoroughfare.

"The city of Hampton is excited that the NIA will be the cornerstone of a new high-tech research campus to be built along the growing Magruder Blvd. corridor," said Hampton Mayor Mamie Locke. "The NIA has the potential to employ several hundred people over the next five to ten years who will be paid salaries that are nationally competitive for scientists and engineers."

Last fall, NASA's Langley Research Center teamed with the National Institute of Aerospace Associates (NIAA), a non-profit corporation, to create the world-class institute to do research, develop new technologies for the nation and help educate and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Keeping the Institute near Langley helps facilitate the Institutes involvement in agency-sponsored research programs and foster collaboration with NASA, including access to its world-class research facilities.

"Once the final details have been worked out, this lease agreement will give the NIA a permanent presence close to Langley with the flexibility the Institute needs to be able to expand as our strategic partnership with NASA Langley grows and expands," said interim NIA president and executive director Bob Whitehead.

The facility the NIA will occupy is the first of a number of buildings planned by Craig Davis Properties, Inc. for the Hampton site. "Our company sees this as the initial step in the development of a proposed 450,000 square foot campus to meet the changing needs of the NIA and the community," said Steve Mallon of Craig Davis Properties, Inc.

The NIA consortium, led by the National Institute of Aerospace Associates (NIAA), is made up of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Foundation, Reston, Va.; Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta; North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, N.C.; North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C.; University of Maryland, College Park, Md.; University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.; and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va.