Brewer tours innovation center’s new facilities

Gov. Jan Brewer toured the new facilities of the Arizona Center for Innovation, saying that the high-tech business incubator is “part of the engine that will power us into Arizona’s second century.”

The center dedicated its new facilities at the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park on Wednesday.

Founded in 2003, the center helps bring new technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace.

The governor’s office says that the center has boosted southern Arizona’s economy and accelerated the state’s progress toward global competitiveness.

Brewer awarded the center a $1.5 million state grant in 2010 that went toward a new facility in what Brewer says is “an investment that will bring novel technologies to the marketplace, create high-wage jobs and expand and diversify the economy of southern Arizona.”