Economic Impact
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Harrisburg University of Science and Technology has received more than $63.5 million in capital investment and it is one of the largest economic development projects this region has ever undertaken. In fact, a 2008 survey by The Central Penn Business Journal found that Harrisburg University is the most significant economic development project in downtown Harrisburg in the past decade, and the one that will have the most long-term impact on our region.
The University represents a major strategic step to attract, educate, and retain Pennsylvania’s diverse 21st century knowledge-based workforce. Its applied academic programs in the nationally critical Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines fulfill a strategic role to position the region—and the nation—to be a competitive force in the global economy. The University is having an immediate economic impact, too.
A May 2008 economic impact analysis shows that within 3 years of welcoming its first class of students in August 2005, the University pumps at least $16.25 million annually into our local economy. Additionally, the University project created 150 direct full-time jobs and an additional 25 part-time jobs during that same time period. Over the next decade, the Harrisburg University project has the potential to create 450 jobs, 350,000 square feet of new academic space and can spark investment in an additional 660,000 square feet of entirely new or rehabilitated corporate, retail, residential and research office and laboratory space in downtown Harrisburg.
As of November 30, 2008, 66 businesses from the region have garnered nearly $57 million in work, including 25 minority- and women-owned businesses from the region, on the new 16-story $73-million Academic Center.
Harrisburg University is like many colleges and universities that are economic engines in their respective regions. Higher education drives job creation, spending and investment, and fuels the knowledge-based workforce. In 1996, the last year for which data are available, more than 1,900 urban universities in across the nation spent $136 billion on salaries, goods and services – nine times greater than direct federal spending on urban business and job development in the same year.