Redwire is expected to officially open its Novaparke facility in March, 2026.
Photosby Brooke McAfee | News and Tribune
EDWARDSVILLE — The Novaparke Innovation & Technology Campus is moving along with the completion of the new Redwire building, the anchor tenant for the Edwardsville technology park.
Floyd County Chief Operations Officer Nick Creevy said it is a “really exciting time now at Novaparke” as Redwire prepares to open in its new facility. The advanced space technology company is moving from Galena to Novaparke with the opening of its new building expected in March.
County officials are also looking to the future of Novaparke as they seek to bring in more tenants.
Indiana University Southeast will occupy a portion of the 35,000-square-foot Redwire building, also known as Building 5, for lab space, which includes 30,000 square feet leased to Redwire and another 5,000 square feet leased to IUS.
Redwire is beginning to work in the new facility while also finishing its work in the Galena facility, which was formerly Techshot before the company was acquired by Redwire. The Florida-based company focuses on microgravity research and space infrastructure.
IUS will offer programming for entrepreneurship and business development in the facility.
“With Building 5 coming to completion and IUS coming to be there on a permanent basis with a physical location, we’re really looking forward, and the ball is starting to move a little faster out there,” Creevy said.
“We’re going to look at if we can get a certified tech park designation in the next year or so — that’s sort of the next step in the process. We’re really excited with the progress that’s going on out there. It’s been a lot of work up to this point, and it’s finally starting to bear some fruit.”
The county is also preparing a request for proposals for the remaining lots in Novaparke, which Creevy expects to be issued later this month or in February.
“We have eleven more lots developable,” he said. “We have one in reserve for Redwire…and then 11 that we are looking for potential companies to come in when we have that RFP.”
Floyd County is seeking businesses “tailored to the type of fields that we’re looking to develop at Novaparke,” Creevy said.
“We want to see companies that offer good, competitive wages — higher tech stuff that fit with the sectors that we feel like we have a little bit of a niche in — and really are just good community members,” he said. Al Knable, president of the Floyd County Commissioners, said Redwire will be the “anchor tenant for what we think will be an innovative and technologically geared park.”
A MAJOR INVESTMENT
The county has leveraged state and federal funds to develop Novaparke, and it has involved significant investments from the county using Tax Increment Financing dollars and other sources.
In September, the Floyd County Commissioners approved a nearly $1 million change order for the $10 million Redwire building project for the development of the IUS portion of the facility. Creevy said this was budgeted during the Build-Operate-Transfer process, but was not placed in the construction contract with Shireman Construction for the exact amount.
“It was not as though the contract was bid and there was an unknown change that would be coming,” Creevy said. “We probably could have built it into the contract in a different way. But at the time, we did not know what the IUS space was going to look like.”
“We were still working with them on design, so we did not have the finalized price on it, but we did have the overall building and the overall Redwire portion considered.”
He said such a large change order “is never ideal,” but it was within the allowable threshold. The county has had a “great relationship” with the developer, he said.
“We’ve worked very well with them,” Creevy said. “I don’t think there’s been any surprises or costs that were unexpectedly high. In fact, a lot of the costs they worked really hard to value engineer and get to a place that we were comfortable with.” There have also been developments through the Historic WhistleStop Inn, which is managed by The Root co-working space. It offers a business accelerator that has helped startups such as Proper Pilots, which is based in the building.
The commissioners recently approved an economic development agreement for a total of $50,000 in loans to Proper Pilots to stay at Novaparke.
“We wanted to keep them here, and we were able to do that,” Creevy said. “They’ve been working with The Root and IUS School of Business out of that center.”
Knable said businesses such as Proper Pilots are a “good fit” for Novaparke, and the IUS partnership will bring “young, innovative minds” to the park. He also praised The Root for its work providing an incubator for small businesses.
This brings “synergy” to the park, he said.
“The nice thing about Redwire, you have stability,” Knable said. “With IUS, you have stability. With Proper Pilots, you have someone who is hoping to make a run of it, and with the folks at over at The Root, you have people who are trying to get their feet off the ground and see if any of their ideas stick. So it’s a good mix, and I think it’s a good collaborative mix. I look forward to seeing some of that bear fruit over the next half decade to decade and beyond.”
One of the challenges moving forward will be continuing infrastructure improvements to attract businesses to the park, according to Knable.
“One of the big hindrances thus far is that some of the people who wanted to look at the area require a little bit more in regards to utilities than we have out there,” he said. “It has no natural gas supply out there that I’m aware of, so at some point we’re probably going to have to rectify that and get natural gas out there so there can be power out there for some of the folks who are wanting to look at that as a home for their company.”
However, the county is taking it “one step at a time,” Knable said.
“Hopefully by the time we have blooms off of the trees and corn coming up we’ll have Redwire fully in their new home, and I think that will serve as a beacon for other people in related industries to come out and give us a look,” he said.
“And once we’ve got them settled in, I think we’re going to take a more aggressive marketing approach when it comes to that area out there and trying to fulfill the promise that was made years ago when that was put together.”
‘A LONG TIME COMING’
Creevy said the development of Novaparke and the Redwire facility has been a “long time coming for Floyd County.”
“We saw businesses leaving Floyd County because they didn’t have places to grow and develop,” he said. “Redwire — at the time, Techshot — had outgrown their space, and it was a potential that they were going to leave.
“We are really proud of that company being a Floyd County company with Floyd County people, with IUS graduates, and we wanted to see what we could do to create an ecosystem where we didn’t have to see companies like that leave Floyd County. We wanted them to stay here, and I think that’s what we’ve done with Novaparke.”
Creevy describes the Redwire building as a “top-notch facility.”
“I think when we have the grand opening, it’s going to knock people’s socks off to see what they do there and some of the things in that building,” he said.
It will be a lengthy process to develop the rest of the park, according to Creevy.
“There is a lot of potential out there,” he said. “We don’t want to just take the first thing that comes in. We want to make sure it’s the right fit. But this will continue to pay dividends for the county, creating really top-notch jobs, creating tax revenues, really improving the quality of place in the county, and it’s just a great asset for the continued growth of Floyd County in a deliberate and intentional way that is consistent with the values of Floyd County and the people of Floyd County.”
Knable hopes Novaparke will bring more entrepreneurs into Floyd County, emphasizing the long-term benefits of increased career opportunities. The goal is “smart, intelligent, well-thought-out growth with meaningful, wellpaying jobs that will support families,” he said.
“People talk about affordable housing, and one way to create more affordable housing is to create lower-cost homes, and another way to do it is to create higher-paying wages so people can afford the homes that are already on the market,” he said.
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