http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v384/Aallen396/mcmasteru.jpg

This is an example of Hamilton transforming industrial land into new uses. The new park will employ about 1,500 people.

The McMaster Innovation Park itself will open next year. The site is currently being refurbished.

http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/images/hs/hs1064175_1-thumb.jpg
McMaster University acquired 14.8 hectares of the former Camco plant to build a biotech research park within walking distance of the campus. Park proposal shows Main Street West at top , Aberdeen Avenue at bottom right and Longwood Road turned into a boulevard.

So far since the announcement of McMaster taking over the Camco site there have been several announcements.

* City of Hamilton has pledged $5-million to develop an incubator facility.

* General Motor's commitment to McMaster is valued at more then $60 million and includes computer-based design tools to help train a new generation of Canadian engineering students. The GM of Canada Centre for Engineering Design will be located in the new McMaster School of Engineering Practice and is scheduled to open in 2007. The GM of Canada Centre for Corrosion Engineering Research will be located at the new McMaster Innovation Park and is scheduled to open in 2006.

* Province will contribute $10-million to accelerate the development of McMaster Innovation Park

* And finally today the federal government announced plans to relocate the majority of the NRCan CANMET Materials Technology Laboratory(CANMET-MTL) to new state-of-the-art facilities in Hamilton. The 60-million dollar building will house 100 federal scientists and should be completed in 3 years.

The research park will house more than one-million square feet of laboratory, office, teaching, training, and conference facilities. The project represents a potential investment (building and equipment) of $300-million to $400-million, the majority of which will come from government and private sector partnerships. Approximately 1,500 long-term jobs are expected to be created with an annual direct payroll impact of more than $100-million.

Federal research agency relocated to Hamilton

HAMILTON - It's a major boost for McMaster University's Innovation Park and Hamilton's economy.

The federal government is re-locating the national metal and materials research agency to the Park, located at the former Camco plant site on Longwood Road.

The 60-million dollar building will house 100 federal scientists and should be completed in 3 years.

The McMaster Innovation Park itself will open next year.

McMaster's strong engineering faculty and Hamilton's steel industry and its proximity to major automotive plants were keys to the relocation from Ottawa.

Last year, GM of Canada announced plans to invest 62-million dollars in a state-of-the-art, computer-aided design centre at McMaster.

CANMET expected to move from Ottawa to McMaster's Innovation Park by 2008

More than 100 of the best materials scientists in Canada are coming to Hamilton as part of a $60-million investment in McMaster University's Innovation Park.

CANMET Materials Technology Laboratory, a federal government agency specializing in innovative metal and materials development, will become the flagship at the 14.8-hectare park, the university announced yesterday.

The deal is expected to establish Hamilton as an internationally recognized powerhouse in materials research and to provide a huge boost to the city's steel and autoparts makers.

"This will make Hamilton a gateway for the advanced manufacturing sector," said Liberal house leader Tony Valeri. "It'll attract investment, it will attract companies and it will sustain the jobs we already have in this area."

CANMET, which is expected to move out of its aging Ottawa facilities by 2008, will be installed in a $40-million, state-of-the-art building outfitted with $20-million worth of new equipment paid for by the federal government. Although plans for the building have not been finalized, CANMET's current lab is about 110,000 square feet.

About 110 scientists and support staff will have the opportunity to move with the lab. Researchers will have a foundry and rolling mill at their disposal as well as a "pilot lab" to work with car manufacturers and steelmakers on new products.

"If Stelco or Dofasco had a technology they wanted to try out, they could do that here," said Mac Braid, acting deputy director for CANMET. "We help them develop the product, then they can move it into full-scale production in their own facility."

The opportunity to be situated next to McMaster's engineering department as well as the country's major steelmakers and car manufacturers made Hamilton an "ideal location," Braid said.

"Having manufacturers like this nearby will enable us to forge national and international research collaborations of outstanding calibre."

CANMET is already working on the development of lightweight steel and materials for cars and has had a number of partnerships with General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. It has produced oil and gas pipelines, developed a magnesium engine cradle for GM's Corvette Z06 and worked closely with Dofasco to develop a family of "interstitial free steels" used on the fenders, roofs and trunks of cars. Dofasco CEO and president Don Pether has been involved in discussions to move the lab for several years and helped the university make its case to the government.

"They'll be closer to us, instead of stuck in a lab in Ottawa," said Ian O'Reilly, general manager of research and development at Dofasco. "E-mail has its virtues, but being able to physically move between plants and to have face-to-face contact with these guys is just invaluable."

With China now the world's largest producer and consumer of steel - manufacturing nearly 300 million tons of mostly low-grade commodity steel each year - analysts have said North American steelmakers will need to develop more high-end, custom products in order to survive. Having the CANMET facility nearby will be a coup for steel innovation, said Stelco president and CEO Courtney Pratt.

"There's no question the survival of steel in Canada won't have much to do with commodity products. It will have to do with the production of value-added steel," Pratt said. "An organization like CANMET is so important for that. We're very pleased about this move and we'll be exploring any relationship we can have with them."

CANMET will be part of a material research village in the park that will also include the General Motors centre for corrosion research and the separate GM engineering design centre - a combined $60-million investment that was announced late last year.

The university is still working to develop a separate biotechnology village, said Mahdouh Shoukri, McMaster's vice-president of research and international affairs.

Although CANMET attracted few secondary businesses to its location in Ottawa, Shoukri said it will be a magnet for new industry in Hamilton.

"Ottawa does not have the area of industrial activity that we have and the universities up there did not focus on manufacturing," he said. "The closest universities that dealt with this issue were McGill and l'Ecole Polytechnique in Quebec. But Hamilton has McMaster, the University of Toronto, Waterloo and Western nearby. They are all powerhouses in this field and that will make the park a hub for ideas and exchange."

Valeri, the MP for Hamilton East-Stoney Creek, was equally optimistic.

"Once you see synergies develop, it tends to attract more and more businesses," he said. "Companies that want to develop a North American market will want to be close to the centre of innovation in their field."

The United States created a similar industry hub when it moved most of its semiconductor research agencies to Texas. Positioning the labs close to semiconductor giant Texas Instruments and the University of Texas allowed for a greater exchange of ideas between academics and industry researchers and created a unique training ground for students.

"That was a very successful venture," said Joseph D'Cruz, a professor at the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto. "They had great collaboration and produced an impressive number of patents.

"By locating a government lab near Dofasco and Stelco and the car plants, you will get a similar effect in the steel and auto industry. The closer this lab is to the manufacturing sector, the more it will understand the needs of the industry.

very good news for Hamilton... thanks for keeping on top of this Steeltown

Steeltown, it must be a very exciting time for a young lad like you to be in Hamilton. :)

Honestly, I think Hamilton is underrated. I like the western parts of the city - like Dundas and Ancaster. What are your favorite parts? I'm not that fond of Hamilton Mountain, or does it have some great places that I must have missed? I'm driving out to Ontario in about 3 weeks, so what are the must sees?

The Innovation Park is very big news to me since I have only one more year to complete before I can graduate as a Biotechnology technician. I’m hoping to get a career out of the place.

I got a good laugh out of this cartoon. Guess I’m a nerd lol.
http://www.mackaycartoons.com/2005-01-19.jpg

Though they look more like a computer nerd then a chemistry nerd.

I pretty much like all of the western part of the city. I like the area from Dundurn, Locke, Queen and Hess Street. Nice clean cosy neighbourhoods. I also love the Aberdeen Street area, it's filled with Victorian style homes (mostly rich people live in that area). I plan to do a photo tour in that area to show some Victorian houses in the future.

If you’re coming to check out Hamilton I would definitely do a stop at Hess Village maybe for lunch or dinner. If you like to relax a bit you can pop over Bayfront Park and walk around the trail to Cootes Paradise. Then there's Pier 8 with has the new Marine Discovery Centre and HMCS Haida. Oh and check out the refurbished Art Gallery! Just opened about two months ago.

There's not much to check out on the Mountain, mostly residential area. The only true urban area on the Mountain is Concession Street.

Places like Innovation Park will transform Hamilton into something even better than it is now.

Thanks for the info.

Some good news about the MIP.


$15m renovation under way at McMaster Innovation Park
The Hamilton Spectator


The old brick building and the field of gravel that have been the public’s picture of McMaster Innovation Park are about to change significantly.
Work has begun on $15-million in massive interior renovations to the former Camco office building on Longwood Road South, where the university has secured tenants for one third of the building’s 120,000 square feet.
Those tenants are to start moving in in early 2008, about the same time construction is expected to begin on the federal materials laboratory building immediately south of the existing building.

Here's Phase 1 that's currently happening right now, the red circle is the location of the new hotel

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/dahammer/phase1mip.jpg

This is Phase 2 where two new buildings will locate, one for engineering technology research and another for biosciences.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/dahammer/phase2mip.jpg

Rendering of the renovated Camco building....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v384/Aallen396/camcomip.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v384/Aallen396/camcomip1.jpg

I was actually looking for those renderings, this is gonna look amazing.

Is the plaza beside the building going to be finished with the building or is that in another phase. I am guessing in phase 2 or when the building adjacent to the plaza is complete because who knew you could do that much with 15 million dollars.

No, the park plan that will be sandwiched with two buildings will be part of Phase 1. If you look at Phase 1 you'll see an orange or yellowish colour building with the P for underground parking, that's the location for CANMET. You can see a rendering of the CANMET building outside of the Camco building but it's currently covered with plastic so you can't see it anymore.

According to http://www.mcmasterinnovationpark.ca/mip_presentation_march7_06.pdf..(page 22).....


....The canmet site will be located near the highway where i thought the hotel was supposed to be located. Is that just because it is an older plan that has not been updated or did i just misinterpret it?

That location on page 22 is where the Hotel will be located instead. A hotel there would be better as it'll be visible from 403, especially if it's going to be 7 storey high.

The CANMET will be built on the south side of the Camco building. I have the rendering somewhere it's black and white. There's a giant poster out at Camco that was installed about a week ago with the rendering of CANMET showing it's location but it's covered in plastic right now, supposed to be unveiled soon.

I agree with the location of the hotel as it will be visible from the 403 but the only downside to that would be for people going from the hotel to the very south of the park.

I have yet to see the camco rendering, i guess i'll have to get down there eventually.:cheers: