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New research space planned for College Park

Posted on: January 12, 2025

The University of Maryland (UMD) is planning to build a new research and development space near the Purple Line’s Riverdale Park station. 

The project is a joint venture between the university and Maryland-based developer St. John Properties, which has built more than 40 other flex and R&D spaces across the state, according to its website. 

The University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents awarded a 99-year lease of a 6.4-acre property in the Discovery District located just outside College Park to the developer in November, and the project is currently in the early design stages. 

The proposed space will consist of two, one-story buildings totaling about 58,000 square feet, and is key to the university’s “broader effort to attract and retain high-tech companies” in the Discovery District, according to a report given to the board’s finance committee in October. 

But some community members, including Riverdale Park Mayor Alan Thompson, have voiced concerns about the project. 

Thompson said research-flex space is usually built in rural areas, and that Riverdale Park officials have always thought new development in the Discovery District area should be more dense. 

“And particularly as the Purple Line is coming in, it just seems really inappropriate to put a single-story, surrounded by parking, research-flex space in that area,” he told College Park Here & Now.—Sam Gauntt

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