Success Stories

Halycon Center Opens

The Halcyon Commercialization Center at ORNL’s Science and Technology Park officially opened in June, and six companies have already signed leases. The three-story, 28,000-square-foot building, formerly known as Building 2033, is designed for companies interested in collaborating with lab researchers, primarily on technology transfer or commercialization of technologies developed at the lab.

"This is part of a greater whole," Lawrence Young, Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee (CROET) president and chief executive officer, said in referring to the new center. The Halcyon Commercialization Center has about 40 offices as well as conference room and laboratory space. The new center is being managed by Halcyon LLC, a CROET subsidiary, and Technology 2020.

The initiative for the building renovation and the new S&T Park kicked off several years ago, with a goal of cleaning up the central ORNL campus. There were new or almost new facilities on the east and west ends of ORNL, with an eyesore in the center, said Gerald Boyd, manager of the DOE Oak Ridge Office. "The idea was we really needed to finish this campus up," he said.

It’s a unique facility in a unique park, said Thomas Zacharia, ORNL deputy director for science and technology. "It symbolizes what is possible."

The six companies that have signed leases at the Halcyon Commercialization Center are Strata-G, LRS Federal, XCEL Engineering, General Atomics, Emerson, and WiFi Solutions.

The officials at the opening ceremony praised the leadership and support of U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp of Tennessee’s Third Congressional District, who attended the open house. The Halcyon Commercialization Center, formerly used for office space, was remodeled with funding from three HUD awards totaling $692,000 and significant additional investment from CROET.