By ELIZABETH COOPER
Observer-Dispatch
Posted Aug 11, 2009 @ 12:52 PM
Last update Aug 11, 2009 @ 01:07 PM

ROME —
Ground was broken this morning for a 28,000-square-foot addition to a research center at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Griffiss Business and Technology Park in Rome, Steve DiMeo, president of Mohawk Valley EDGE said.

There will also be renovations to existing buildings to develop about 18,000 square feet of lab space.

The new construction is part of the recommendations made in the 2005 federal Base Realignment and Closure round, DiMeo said.

The Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommended that the Air Force Information Directorate be consolidated at Griffiss.

The construction shoud be complete by 2011, he said.

“Under the law, BRACC recommendations have to be completed by 2011,” he said.

At the same time, an offshoot of the Air Force Sensor Directorate is moving from Griffiss to Wright Patterson Air Force Base.

DiMeo said the arrival of the Information Directorate jobs would be offset by the departure of the Sensors Directorate jobs.

“It’s pretty much a wash,” he said.