As Work Begins on Next NGA West, GeoFutures Plans for Tomorrow
Date Posted: January 29, 2020
Posted In: Organizations, Projects, Regionalism, Workforce,
From St. Louis Magazine: When elected officials and members of the intelligence community gathered in North St. Louis to break ground at the site of the new Next NGA West facility last November, it was a historic moment. With a $1.75 billion price tag, the new National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency campus will be St. Louis’ biggest federal investment project. Slated to open in 2025, it will encompass 97 acres of the St. Louis Place neighborhood. The largest NGA headquarters outside of Washington, D.C., the new building—along with the GeoSaurus geospatial innovation resource center at T-REX and the city’s geospatial startup community—is a strong visual indication that St. Louis is ready to take the lead in the geospatial sector.
But important work is also being done behind the scenes. GeoFutures, a group of 29 business, civic, and academic leaders is creating a unified plan for making St. Louis the destination for geospatial technology. It plans to release its findings in March, in conjunction with Saint Louis University’s Geo-Resolution 2020 conference. The biggest challenge? Creating a pool of talent. To do that, GeoFutures is looking close to home: to the children who live near the new NGA campus, and at the tools and skills they’ll need in order to work there if they choose to.
A cluster initiative, GeoFutures isn’t without a roadmap. It’s looking at how St. Louis previously grew, starting in the 1990s, into a leader in agricultural technology through such organizations as the Danforth Plant Science Center. And it’s tapped former NGA director Letitia “Tish” Long to serve on its advisory committee.