KANNAPOLIS — Officials at the North Carolina Research Campus are investing up to $1.5 million in the construction of a third speculative laboratory suite and new, flexible office space on the third floor of the David H. Murdock Core Laboratory building. Construction is scheduled to start in the spring.

The first of the new spaces will be a combination of laboratory and administrative space totaling at least 3,000 square feet. The space can be leased by one company or divided to accommodate up to three companies. The fourth space will be up to 1,800 square feet of office space that can be divided to meet the needs of interested companies.

“We fill a unique niche in the Charlotte market for companies and researchers to move into lab space that is ready-to-go. They can plug in their equipment and get to work,” said Clyde Higgs, vice president of business development at the Research Campus. “We are also finding there is an exceptional need for flexible office space. So we are building out that kind of space for those who need a place to work as they collaborate with scientists across campus. We’re thinking of it as an incubator for new technological and scientific ideas.”

The two new spaces will be downstairs from the David H. Murdock Research Institute and near UNC Charlotte Bioinformatics Services Division. UNC Charlotte recently completed a 1,200-square-foot expansion of their 3,000 square foot office suite to accommodate additional staff and student interns.

The Research Campus originally announced the construction of speculative, or ready-to-go, laboratory space in 2012. The first unit is 1,500 square feet with the option to be divided into three, 500-square-foot units. It leased by early 2013 as construction started on the second speculative lab, which is now occupied by the NCA&T Center for Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies. NCA&T maintains their main laboratory in the UNC Nutrition Research Institute building on the Research Campus and is expanding into the ready-to-go space to house their growing research program. The investment in the first two such spaces totaled $1.2 million.