Crews plan to break ground Wednesday on undeveloped land in Brunswick County for a facility that marks the start of a new technology park.

McKinley Building Corp. is the builder for MicroSolv Technology Corp.’s new 11,000-square-foot headquarters on about 1 acre in the 12.5-acre Ross Technology Park. Part of the larger Leland Industrial Park, the technology park is under development with the aim of attracting other businesses in the science industry, said Bill Ciccone, president of MicroSolv.

Ciccone’s firm, which works with universities and other entities for the development, manufacturing and marketing of technology used in analytical, organic and biochemistry laboratories, is moving its headquarters from Eatontown, N.J., to the Leland facility.

“We felt that we had to get to an area that was more business friendly than where we were,” Ciccone said. “They put a lot of restrictions on businesses in New Jersey that I haven’t found there [in Brunswick County]. And we did look in many places to relocate the business, but we chose the north Brunswick area because of the availability of a good workforce, the low taxes, the abundance of land and the fact that you guys are building infrastructure right around there with I-140.”

To be fair to New Jersey, Ciccone said, some of the restrictions are a result of the state's dense population. MicroSolv is among several companies with facilities in the Garden State to choose southeastern North Carolina for new locations. Earlier this year, Kessebohmer USA Inc. signed a lease for 60,000 square feet in the former DAK Americas warehouse at 2975 Andrew Jackson Highway in Leland, with plans to move its New Jersey warehouse there next year.

As for MicroSolv's manufacturing facility, Ciccone said, that part of the company will remain in the state of New York, while the Ross Technology Park headquarters will perform sales, marketing, customer service, shipping, warehousing and packaging functions.

Chrom-Lord LLC, for which Ciccone is a managing partner, owns about 4.5 acres of the technology park while 108 Grace LLC, managed by Allen and Elizabeth Ross, owns the remaining portion. Allen Ross is also head of AR Corp., another science sector firm that's building a facility in the technology park. 

Along with Ciccone, MicroSolv’s vice president and North Carolina native Robert Fitzgerald is among those expected to be at the company’s ground-breaking ceremony scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday at 9158 Industrial Blvd. in Leland Industrial Park.

Ciccone said Todd Toconis of Wilmington-based Town & Country Real Estate helped put the deal together for the technology park property, which was previously bank-owned.

“I was happy to act in the role using my experience in commercial real estate and development to get the project off the ground and happy to add to the tax base in an up-and-coming industrial park,” Toconis said Monday.

Ciccone said MicroSolv hopes to be in its new headquarters by April, potentially hiring 10 to 12 people for an eventual 15- to 16-employee local workforce.

“We’re very excited to be here. We’re looking forward to being part of the community, helping Brunswick County and Leland continue to develop in a very healthy way. We’re a clean business; we don’t have any smokestacks or anything like that,” Ciccone said. “We’re looking forward to getting the building done and hiring employees.”

He said the market MicroSolv serves is global.

"Literally, we could be anywhere," Ciccone said. "We chose Leland."