By KERRY SMITH, EDITOR, ST. LOUIS CONSTRUCTION NEWS AND REVIEW MAGAZINE
U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) and project partners are celebrating the start of a build-out of 75,000 square feet of secure office space in The Globe Building in downtown St. Louis.
The classified space will officially meet the requirements of a SCIF, as defined by the Dept. of Defense. A SCIF is a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. Its location on the sixth floor of the longstanding building at 710 North Tucker Boulevard will provide a synergistic opportunity for all sizes of businesses who partner with the geospatial intelligence community.
“St. Louis now has the opportunity to become more competitive from an economic and entrepreneurial development standpoint in attracting and expanding geospatial intelligence firms of all types,” said Blunt, “and to increase jobs in this industry sector.”
This SCIF is the first of its kind outside the national capital region, project partners attest. According to the Global Geospatial Industry Outlook Report presented this week at the Geospatial World Forum in Amsterdam, the size and scale of the geospatial intelligence sector is projected to top $1.4 trillion globally by 2030.
In addition to the federal government, project partners on this venture include Community Development Ventures Inc. (CEO Richard Fleming), Plum Run LLC (Managing Partner Keith Masback) and Westway Services Group (President Jack Pryor).
“Expanded opportunities for the geospatial intelligence sector extend well beyond its historic focus in the world of defense,” Fleming said. “These opportunities include commercial applications such as precision agriculture, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, architecture and engineering, and other non-defense areas.”