PRACTICE AREA

Universities & College Towns

Randall Gross is an economic and community development consultant with more than 30 years of experience determining the market and financial feasibility of real estate projects and providing various economic and strategic planning services relating to economic & community development.  Mr. Gross has provided a variety of services relating to universities and issues affecting university towns. He has worked directly for universities to examine the potential for university-related development, including housing, retail, and research & development parks. He has examined approaches for better integration or celebration of universities with surrounding communities and for leveraging universities for local economic development. He has often examined the role of universities in the markets for retail, housing, and other uses as part of town center or comprehensive plans. He has also integrated assessments of universities and university-related land uses into economic or fiscal impact assessments for communities.

Randall Gross brings particularly relevant expertise in the development of university-related and other research & technology parks, having assessed their economic & market potentials, development financial feasibility, economic & fiscal impacts. They use this information in developing strategic implementation business plans, which include property development, marketing, management, technology transfer, economic development, and partnership creation strategies.  Through his extensive experience in the Science & Technology Park arena, Randall Gross understands:

  • The ultimate objectives of maximizing benefits in terms of commercialization through partnerships for the purposes of entrepreneurial development and job creation. Partnerships include those between public, private, and non-profit sector players.

  • The unique factors in terms of proximity and contractual access to basic and applied research that make the requirements for locating and developing science parks different from other types of business park projects.

  • The processes required to implement development of a complex project of this nature. 

  • The opportunities created through R&D and science parks for enhancing public-private partnerships; and to leverage private, public, and NGO grant funding and investment in support of research and business development. 

  • How these developments can enhance the prestige of research institutions and their partners and also raise the investment profile of the community.

In addition to R&D parks, Mr. Gross brings other relevant project experience on technology incubators; as well as technology corridors, research clusters, and other broad technology-related economic development strategies. These strategies focus not on development of a specific site but rather on the regional opportunities for economic growth relating to technology clusters.