Scheer Partners will develop the new forensic lab on behalf of the Virginia Department of Forensic Science (DFS) and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) through the state's Public-Private Partnership program (PPEA). An April 2007 groundbreaking is slated for the $60 million facility.

Dan Gonzalez, who along with colleagues Herman Diebler and Tom Sandlin worked on the deal, tells GlobeSt.com that the cluster of high-tech R&D and related technologies locating at Commonwealth was a prime reason why Virginia decided to locate the lab there. "These companies are all leveraging the same facilities and technologies," he says.

Anchored by George Mason University's life science campus, tenants in the park include American Type Culture Collection, Assett Management, Baker Engineering, Christopher Consulting, Comcast, EnviroSolutions, Eli Lilly, Logis-Tech, NCS Technologies, Progeny Systems, ProLogic, and SAIC. Recently, Waterford Commercial Development acquired 50.6 acres to develop a 640,000-sf campus of office and industrial/flex buildings there.