Going Green: GenCore Building First Of Its Kind In East Texas By DAYNA WORCHEL, Staff Writer, Tyler Morning Telegraph   |   May 27, 2010

GenCore and the city of Tyler are helping lead East Texas in a trend toward a more environmentally responsible way of doing business. They are doing so by creating a structure called the GenCore Building, which will boast some of the latest in green technology.

The 34,800-square-foot building, set to be completed in the fall of 2011, will be home to the Tyler-based GenCore company. It also will be the first development on the property to be called Corporate Green at Eagle's Nest, to be at the southwest corner of Paluxy Drive and Eagle's Nest Boulevard.

The project will bring an additional 10 jobs to the 28-member GenCore staff when it is built, company owner and president Phil Burks said at a news conference on Wednesday at Tyler City Hall. The project will cost between $10 million and $12 million.

Tom Mullins, president and CEO of the Tyler Economic Development Council, described the project as innovative. Mullins thinks that the movement to build green is part of a larger national trend to use more earth-friendly materials. "I hope it will become a trend in East Texas and beyond," he said.

The building, which will be available to house multiple tenants, will include features such as plug-in stations for electric cars, a 36,000-gallon cistern to collect rainwater to water trees on the property, and light emitting diode bulbs inside of the building. Burks said the building will be the first of its kind in East Texas.

Because no other buildings of this type exist in the area, it will serve as an educational tool for others. GenCore has partnered with The University of Texas at Tyler's College of Engineering and Computer Science to augment its classes. Engineering students in the fall will visit and observe the building site to have firsthand experience with an advanced technology "green" building project.

The savings on utility costs in the new building are expected to be about 10 to 15 percent below the costs of a traditionally built office building, said Steve Todd, senior vice president with the Bucher, Willis and Ratliff architecture firm, who is designing the building. Todd said that figure is based on an estimate using historical data.

Burks said his company has hired an arborist to make sure as many trees are preserved as possible, and said that there are plans to use the tree chips on the building grounds from those that are removed from the property.

Burks said his company could be based anywhere in the world, but that he wants to stay in the area because of the good economy, the schools and the people. "All of this makes Tyler a wonderful place to be," he said.

In the early 1980s, Burks created software and installed radio towers to support Motorola Trunking mobile radio systems. After selling the tower business, he retained the rights to the management and billing software and found a niche in the public safety market around the world, including providing services for the East Texas Medical Center Regional Healthcare System Trunking Radio System.

Burks' companies that produce airtime billing software and other software applications that are marketed and sold internationally are now commonly known as The Genesis Group.

Mayor Barbara Bass, who is a board member on the Tyler Economic Development Council, thanked Burks for creating the building.

"This is a high tech part of our Industry Growth Initiative," Mayor Bass said. "We must have jobs, and this will bring high-end jobs to Tyler."

Burks said his company should employ about 35 to 37 employees at the time they move into the new building.