Clemson Eyes Future Expansion of CU-ICAR

With Clemson University's International Center for Automotive Research practically at capacity, the school is creating a business plan to possibly expand the campus, located just outside Mauldin's city limits.

"The university is considering options to create a new building on CU-ICAR’s campus, similar to the Center for Emerging Technologies, as it reaches capacity," reported the Charleston Regional Business Journal.

CU-ICAR tripled its number of industry partners last fiscal year and now counts 34 partners, including 17 with a presence on campus. In the past year, CU-ICAR opened the Center for Emerging Technologies, its first multi-tenant building, according to a report by GSA Business. The 60,000-square-foot center is home to more than one dozen companies and provides office, administrative and laboratory space for the transportation, technology and energy sectors.

Clemson President James Barker made the announcement at a Tuesday press conference held to spotlight the university's economic impact in the Upstate and throughout South Carolina.

Clemson contributed more than $1.83 billion in economic output and nearly 25,000 jobs statewide in 2010, according to data analyzed from 2001 to 2010 by Clemson’s Strom Thurmond Institute for Government and Public Affairs. The study found that Clemson had a net return to taxpayers of $77.4 million.

In the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson combined statistical area, the university had a $1.57 billion economic impact and generated 21,566 jobs in 2010. The area includes Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Pickens, Laurens and Cherokee counties.

In Greenville County alone, Clemson directly and indirectly created 6,165 jobs and $508.9 million in the local economy in 2010.

By itself, CU-ICAR has attracted more than $250 million in public and private investments and helped to create more than 700 jobs since opening six years, the university said in a press release.