Battelle Memorial Institute on brink of expansion in Harford Co. tech

Nearly two years after moving into its $20 million technology center near Aberdeen Proving Ground, Battelle Memorial Institute is considering an expansion.

The Ohio-based nonprofit research and development powerhouse is in final negotiations with the state to buy 47 acres of land at the Higher Education and Applied Technology Center, known as HEAT, in Aberdeen in Harford County.

The 150-acre education and technology park is adjacent to Aberdeen Proving Ground, an Army research and testing facility that has spawned millions of dollars of work for defense contractors in the county.

The buy brings Battelle's holdings in the county to about 90 acres, two-thirds of the land at the HEAT Center. Battelle's growth in the last couple of years has prompted the company to buy the land, which could sustain hundreds of thousands of square feet of new development.

For now, Battelle is considering constructing a new building similar to the 80,000-square-foot Battelle Eastern Science and Technology Center, but plans are still very preliminary, said Katy Delaney, Battelle's national media relations manager.

We are poised to grow, said Delaney. But it is not final.

Battelle's board has not yet approved the idea, she said.

The post-Sept. 11, 2001, surge in federal spending on research and development is fueling Battelle's growth.

Defense spending in general is growing by about $50 billion annually and spending on defense-related research and development has more than tripled since 1997, according to federal statistics.

The 16 laboratories and some 200 scientists and engineers at Battelle's Eastern Science and Technology Center perform chemical and biological research for government clients that include the Defense Department, the military services, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

In May, the organization nabbed a piece of a $350 million contract to operate the National Defense Center for Environmental Excellence. For its work developing environmental technologies to reduce the environmental impacts and costs associated with military operations, it expects to receive about $70 million throughout the five-year contract.

Of the $1.3 billion in revenue Battelle generated last year, about $172 million came from the defense sector, according to figures compiled by Washington Technology newspaper for its annual list of the top 100 federal contractors.

The company also does research and development work in the areas of energy, environment, transportation and health and life sciences.

All told, Battelle's earnings have increased about 25 percent since 2001 from about $1 billion to $1.3 billion last year, not including revenue from laboratory management.

With the national labs it manages, the company oversees 16,000 staff members and conducts $3 billion in annual research and development.

Three years ago, Battelle built its Eastern Science and Technology Center, which is manned with about 200 science and technology staffers, expecting it to be filled in about five years but growth has happened faster than expected, said Delaney.

The organization, which developed the office copier machine and pioneered the technology behind the compact disk, has had a presence in Maryland for about a decade but before the new center was built employees were scattered between a post at Aberdeen Proving Grounds and offices off Route 24 on Tollgate Road.

Battelle has become a major player in Harford County - it employs about 420 throughout the area - and a boon to the county's growth, said J. Thomas Sadowski, director of economic development for the county.

Its growth highlighted a recent agreement between commercial real estate developer Opus East LLC and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build and lease a 200-acre technology park that could create thousands of jobs in the county.

The multiyear project, which includes a number of facilities, would span about 2.5 million square feet of development.

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