By Andy Rieger
The Norman Transcript 

Pullout Box: Other businesses in NEDC's Norman Business Park include Client Logic, OfficeMax, Albon Engineering and Immunomycologics.

SouthWest Nanotechnologies, a private company formed from an OU professor's research on single-walled nanotubes, broke ground on a 15,000-square-foot headquarters building and manufacturing plant in southeast Norman Thursday morning.

The company, which plans to increase its 18-member staff, will relocate from a building on Industrial Boulevard to the Norman Business Park southeast of SH 9 and 24th Avenue SE. It will be the fifth major company to locate in the 80-acre business park owned and managed by the Norman Economic Development Coalition.

A company spokesman said the total cost of the land, building and equipment is about $3.9 million. One customer for the nanotubes is Honeywell which will use the products in touch screen applications. They also are used in the production of lightweight composites.

With a tractor cutting the tall grass in the background, company officials joined local and state dignitaries in turning dirt for the building, designed by Krittenbrink Architecture.

The selected builder is Armstrong Construction Co. A six-month construction timeline is scheduled for the plant which is designed to be easily expanded.

NEDC chair Lois Lawler-Brown said the facility represents a large step forward for SouthWest Nanotechnologies and the OU-NEDC relationship. "It's really a great step forward for all the parties involved in the Norman Economic Development Coalition," she said.

Dave Arthur, the company's chief executive officer, said NEDC will lease the building and some equipment to SouthWest Nanotechnology.

"I expect this building will be adequate for one to three years," he said. The company now operates out of about 5,000 square feet. Additional manufacturing, lab and research and development staff members will be added, he said.

The company's founder and chief scientist is Dr. Daniel Resasco, an OU professor of chemical engineering. It is one of about 40 nanotechnology startup companies statewide but the only one to be able to produce on a large scale.

Arthur said the specialized, custom-made nanotubes will have a major impact on industries ranging from health care to airliner construction. He said the plant will be able to increase its production of nanotubes at least 100 times more than it does now.

"There has been no leader in the single-wall nanotubes. We expect to do $50,000 per day by the second quarter of 2008," Arthur told the groundbreaking audience. "We are going to be the center of the universe -- right here in Norman, Oklahoma -- for single-walled nanotubes."

Oklahoma Commerce Secretary Natalie Shirley called the NEDC-SouthWest Nanotechnologies partnership a model for other communities. She said NEDC takes a company from conception and carries it through an incubator.

"They grow it," she said. "This truly is the way it should be done."

Norman Mayor Cindy Rosenthal called the groundbreaking an exciting time in a cutting-edge industry. "I think it indicates the vitality and the great partnership that goes on in this community," she said.