El Cajon’s new Software Engineering Center is being looked at to spur more tech growth in the region.
Local political and business leaders recently celebrated the grand opening of the center, which is the first and largest collaborative engineering project of its kind in San Diego County.
The center is headed by the San Diego Defense & Space Technology Consortium, which was created in 1998 to promote the growth and competitiveness of the local defense and space technology industry.
The new center allows small businesses to work in integrated project teams to bid competitively on projects.
The center, housed in a 28,500-square-foot facility in the Gillespie Field Business Park, has about 130 engineers, technicians and managers from 14 local companies and government agencies. The center is expected to generate an annual payroll of about $6.5 million.
The consortium’s first major government contract includes providing the technology infrastructure for a large-scale satellite communications management system for the San Diego-based Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command Systems Center.
“We are confident this is just the beginning,” said Bernard Janov, president of the consortium. “San Diego is rich with high technology. This effort stands as a catalyst in promoting joint ventures and partnerships to leverage the energy, ingenuity and technological ideas of our many small businesses and entrepreneurs.”
