'ADVANCED' VISION. A $55M north St. Louis project could cement this region as the home of advanced manufacturing.
By James Drew – Reporter, St. Louis Business Journal. Mar 30, 2023
Leaders of the project to build a $55 million advanced manufacturing center in St. Louis say it will meet the needs of industry and potentially create hundreds of new businesses while providing "strong, diverse and equitable growth" for the region.
The federal government last September awarded a $25 million grant to the metro area for several advanced manufacturing projects. The funding, approved in a national competition called the Build Back Better Regional Challenge, includes $7 million toward construction of the 150,000-square foot center adjacent to the campus of Ranken Technical College in north St. Louis’ Vandeventer neighborhood
Two former Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) executives working on the project define advanced manufacturing as “innovative technologies, tools and processes used to create current and future products.” Examples include robots and automation, high-performance computing and 3D printing. Inside the St. Louis Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Center, or AMICSTL, will be manufacturing high bay space, advanced specialty labs and corresponding equipment, community spaces for training and community activities and an auditorium for world-class technical conferences and product showcases.
Kory Mathews, CEO of AMICSTL and a former Boeing vice president for enterprise services, stressed that the project is about more than a building. When it opens, people will work and collaborate side by side, including AMICSTL employees, employees from companies across eight different sectors including aerospace and geospatial, staff from leading regional research universities and people in training.
“In a partnership, they will be conducting advanced research across sectors, operating as an incubator for emerging advanced manufacturing businesses, and utilizing the space and equipment to prototype tools and processes and at times, enter into low-rate production,” added former Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg, chairman of the board of directors of AMICSTL.
English inspiration
Based on an advanced manufacturing center established in 2001 in Sheffield, England, AMICSTL has set a goal to attract companies that will build facilities near it and around the region. The Sheffield center has about 400 companies in its ecosystem, including Boeing and "that's a small version of what we're going to do here," Muilenburg said.
The project is moving from vision to implementation this year. The nonprofit group AMICSTL is scheduled to move next month into the Robert W. Plaster Free Enterprise Building, adjacent to the Ranken campus and operated by the college.
AMICSTL in April plans to launch its workforce development efforts in collaboration with area universities and colleges, research and development co-led by Saint Louis University and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and production prototyping.
Good Developments Group, the New York City-based developer proposing $1.2 billion project on the downtown St. Louis riverfront, said it is working with AMICSTL on developing a prototype lab at Gateway South. The 94-acre project, which spans three city neighborhoods south of the Arch to Soulard, would revolve around the new construction innovation district and factories that produce modular construction parts in a bid to modernize construction processes.
The lab at Gateway South would enable prototyping large products and low-scale production, said Chauncey Nelson, a St. Louis native who is lead and operator for the workforce and community outreach component of the Gateway South for Good Developments Group.
Next steps
This fall, AMICSTL will host its first research and development conference. Plans call for groundbreaking on the new building in September or October and it to be fully operational by the end of 2025. So far, the nonprofit group that will operate the advanced manufacturing center has raised $14 million for the capital project, including $5 million from Boeing over five years.
“One of the things we are focused on and quite frankly most excited about is the fact that the AMICSTL facility will be in north City and will be a catalytic project for the regions’ economic justice plan and fully in the community,” Muilenburg said.
AMICSTL won’t be the only advanced manufacturing center in the region. The $25 million federal grant announced last September included $3 million for St. Louis Community College's proposed Advanced Manufacturing Training Academy and $2.5 million for one developed by Southwestern Illinois College (SWIC).
Jason Hall, CEO of Greater St. Louis Inc., the region’s lead economic development agency, said the STLCC and SWIC centers won’t be duplicative of AMICSTL.
“With the community colleges, that is all worker training. A big part of AMIC is going to be to integrate those efforts. It’s pioneering new materials, new manufacturing techniques that are a complement to that direct worker training component,” he said.