The Industrial Development Authority of Halifax County has selected O’Brien/Atkins Associates, PA from Research Triangle Park, North Carolina as the design firm for Building One in Riverstone Technology Park.
Halifax County, Virginia is located one hour north of Durham, North Carolina and Research Triangle Park.

Riverstone Technology Park is a 153-acre property owned and managed by the Industrial Development Authority of Halifax County, Virginia. Long-range plans call for the utilization of high bandwidth and research connections to be associated with the e58 project, trails and connectivity to Berry Hill Mansion/Marriott Conference Center, collaboration with regional research entities, and the creation of strategic information based clusters. Riverstone Technology Park is funded by the Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission, Economic Development Administration of the Department of Commerce, the Virginia Department of Transportation, and the Industrial Development Authority of Halifax County.

Building One will be a multi-tenant facility supporting the creation of biotechnology, research & development, and high-technology jobs. The estimated completion date will be fall of 2004. Building One will be approximately 60,000 square feet and include lab space, fiber to the desk, specialized common areas, certain shared services, and redundant power and back-up systems. The estimated cost of the project is $12,280,000.The Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission is the primary provider of funding for the project.

The goal is to attract information based companies by having a location they desire to work in, incentives and leases that make a rural environment competitive, and financing opportunities that allow for growth and risk taking. .

Riverstone Technology Park is a state-recognized Technology Zone and located in one of the State’s Enterprise Zones. Location in these zones allows for reduction/waiver of business fees, permits, utility costs and makes locating companies eligible for State of Virginia job grants and other incentives. Halifax County has provided for accelerated depreciation and low taxes on computer equipment, virtually no tax on research and development equipment and biomedical equipment, job grants for technology jobs created, and 2% investment rebates for qualified companies.

Halifax County is recognized as a HUBZone by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The program encourages economic development in historically underutilized business zones - "HUBZones" - through the establishment of preferences.

Halifax County is strategically located less than half an hour from the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR), within minutes of the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center, and within three hours of several of the country’s top research universities-Virginia Tech, University of Virginia , NC State University, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Duke University.

Financing support will be achieved by Southside Rising, L.L.C Venture Capital Fund, support from the State of Virginia Small Business Financing Authority, loans available from the Lake Country Development Corporation, and several new capital sources soon to be available from the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission.

O'Brien/Atkins Associates, PA is located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and provides architecture, interior design, mechanical/electrical/plumbing engineering, landscape architecture/site planning, master planning and construction administration services to life science and high technology corporate and institutional clients.

O’Brien/Atkins Associates has been in business for 28 years and has provided design services to the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport Authority, Avalon Pharmaceuticals, Biogen, Cisco, Cree, Eisai, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, IBM, MCI, Research Triangle Institute, Syngenta and Wyeth Vaccines, among others. The firm has won more than 60 design awards and in 1998 was the inaugural winner of the American Institute of Architects-North Carolina state chapter’s Firm of the Year award. O’Brien/Atkins has designed 10 million square feet of custom-designed corporate office and high technology/laboratory space in place along the eastern seaboard.