Columbia Gateway Innovation District
Located at the intersection of I-95 and Rt. 175, midway between Washington and Baltimore, Columbia Gateway is home to over 300 businesses, employing approximately 10,000 people. The park combined with neighboring Gateway Commerce Center is 920 acres with a total of 8.1 million sq. ft. of commercial space.
Under County Executive Calvin Ball’s new vision and the direction of the HCEDA, the business park would be turned into an innovation district, where leading-edge companies work with anchor educational intuitions and startups to collaborate on new technologies and services. Creative connections would be fostered with more compact, wired, and transit rich development patterns. Innovation Districts are an economic development model that has emerged not only in the United States, but around the world.
The development of the plan will be driven by property owners and businesses in Columbia Gateway and coordinated by the Howard County Economic Development Authority. For the near term, the plan will include community based programming, such as food trucks, local produce sales, running and cycling races, happy hours, and outdoor events to help create connections between the employees in Columbia Gateway. Over the longer term, new land uses, infrastructure and transportation improvements would also be assessed as part of the future vision.
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