Raytheon extends relationship with University of Arizona with expansion into tech park
Arizona defense contracting giant Raytheon Missiles & Defense has picked up some new office space at a new southern Arizona tech park.
Raytheon (NYSE: RTX) becomes the first corporate tenant at the UA Tech Park at the Bridges near the University of Arizona’s main campus in Tucson. The company, whose Missiles & Defense division is also based in Tucson, said expanding there will help it in its ongoing partnership with the university.
“The Refinery provides us the much needed space where we can continue to collaborate with our university partners and government agencies to develop next-generation technology,” said Wes Kremer, president of Raytheon Missiles & Defense, in a statement. “It will also help us continue to develop the local workforce for future careers in aerospace and enable us to expand are our research due to the proximity to the University of Arizona’s engineering facilities.”
Raytheon’s new leased office space is about 14,000 square feet in The Refinery, a multitenant four-story building on the southern edge of the tech park.
The park is directed by Tech Parks Arizona (TPA) which manages the University of Arizona Center for Innovation, a startup incubator network focused on science and tech. Raytheon also has offices at an affiliated existing tech park location, the UA Tech Park at Rita Road in Tucson, where the defense company has been since 1993 and is one of the largest tenants.
UArizona’s latest tech park building opened in 2022
The newer tech park is described by TPA as an ideal place for tech companies to work that employ students as interns and to recruit fresh UArizona graduates. Raytheon is already a major recruiter out of the school and has an ongoing internship program as well.
“Raytheon’s commitment to The Refinery is an extension of the robust relationship with the University of Arizona,” said Carol Stewart, vice president for Tech Parks Arizona, said in a statement. “We purposefully built the UA Tech Park to facilitate university-industry interaction and create a sandbox for new technology advancement and economic prosperity. We have seen first-hand the regional benefits of the Raytheon and University relationship and it is exciting to see that relationship expand.”
The Refinery opened in 2022, and 50% of its 120,000 square feet is reserved for UArizona, with the rest available for businesses and organizations. The building was developed with the cooperation of The Boyer Co., which has an office in Phoenix and multiple projects around the Valley.
Raytheon is one of the state’s largest defense contractors. The company recently announced that it plans to shrink its four business units into three in a plan that would bring the Missiles & Defense division together with its Intelligence & Space unit, which is based in Arlington, Virginia.
How that reorganization will look and what it could mean for the Missiles & Defense Division hasn’t been described yet, but a spokesperson told the Business Journal in January that the company didn’t expect a significant reduction in its headcount.
The Tucson office of CBRE Group, Inc. represented The Boyer Company and the Tucson office of Cushman & Wakefield | PICOR Commercial Real Estate represented Raytheon in the lease transaction.