Roquette America Opens Innovation Center

6/30/2011

The 40,000-square-foot first phase of the new Roquette Innovation Center, a sustainable, high-tech center for corn processor, was completed this spring. The facility includes test labs, a pilot production plant, a kitchen, an auditorium and meeting rooms. Sustainable features include water-efficient landscaping, native vegetation and preserved farmland. Cordogan, Clark & Associates is the Architect, and Krusinski Construction is the Construction Manager. This is a world-class Science & Technology campus designed for customers to create new and enhance existing products for the Nutrition, Pharmaceutical, Nutraceutical, and Bio-Chemical market segments. The new, multi-million dollar Roquette Innovation Center offers customers access to a world-class development environment, where companies can create new and enhance existing products for the Nutrition, Pharmaceutical, Nutraceutical, and Bio-Chemical market segments. The Roquette Innovation Center magnifies its strategic partnerships with global customers and suppliers, and enables customers the opportunity to design new prototype systems and solutions, while significantly reducing the cycle time to market.

The Innovation Center construction is designed for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver certification, which is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for high performance green buildings that acknowledges a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, indoor environmental, and overall health. The Roquette Innovation Center includes laboratories for customers; a culinary kitchen; Roquette University auditorium; pilot facility; and customer meeting rooms. The new facility will also has specialized commercial-scale laboratory equipment and instrumentation to meet the market’s ever changing needs and increase the pace of product development. Explains Dominique Taret, Roquette America President and CEO, "The new, state-of-the-art Innovation Center will enable our marketing, sales and technical experts to more effectively collaborate and strengthen our customer partnerships."