Rolls-Royce to set up shop at Purdue tech park

Purdue Research Foundation's first development in its new aerospace district will house a research and development team from Rolls-Royce, officials announced Wednesday.

PRF unveiled plans to build a 44,000-square-foot facility where Rolls-Royce will develop and test jet engines, collaborate with Purdue researchers and create a pipeline for graduates to employment opportunities within the company, said Danny Warner, a company executive.

"I've spent a lot of the last few years coming back and forth to try to look at opportunities between Purdue and Rolls-Royce or just to pay back a little bit of what Purdue gave me," said Warner, who holds two degrees from the university. "The opportunity to become the first business that's identified with the new aerospace park is really exciting."

Rolls-Royce occupies no other such facility within the United States, Warner noted.

The company will occupy a majority of the building. Remaining space will be available for companies wishing to follow Rolls-Royce's lead, said PRF President Dan Hasler, who oversees tech parks already in operation in West Lafayette, Merrillville, New Albany and Indianapolis.

"I don't necessarily want to have Rolls be the 100 percent occupant of the building," he said, "because I want to have other spaces so when other companies come and want to have a relationship with Purdue, I have a place for them to sit."

How much PRF will pay to build the facility is still unclear, but the number of jobs Rolls-Royce will bring to the area is expected to be marginal.

"As for 'job creation' — there will not be any associated directly from Rolls-Royce. We will have staff visiting the campus on a regular basis, dependent on the types of research that will take place here," Joel Reuter, vice president of communications and marketing services for Rolls-Royce, said via email. "We mostly see this as an opportunity to work closely with students to fill our pipeline of talent when positions become open in our company."

Purdue announced its plans in April to create a 980-acre tech park west of campus, encompassing Purdue Airport, Purdue Aviation and Maurice Zucrow Laboratories. Less than two months later, Chandler Poole, West Lafayette's director of development, told the Journal & Courier that Rolls-Royce was considering an investment in the park.

The facility will lie within the bounds of the "certified technology park," a designation similar to a tax-increment finance district where tax revenues can be invested back into the community, Mayor John Dennis said.

Perhaps more important is the opportunity to slow the "brain drain," as graduates pursue opportunities outside the city and state.

"It's an excellent opportunity for students to do some research theory," he said, "to basically get a degree and for the interim to have opportunities for employment."

The benefits of the partnership will trickle down to undergraduate students, who will be able to directly apply what they learn in the classroom, said Gary Bertoline, dean of the Purdue Polytechnic Institute.

"This will be more dedicated to aviation research and that's key," he said. "Whenever you have a dedicated space where you can have faculty, staff and students work on a regular basis, great things will happen."