CAMPUS ORIGINS
& INNOVATION TEAM
Kevin O'Neil
Founder,
Catalyst Campus for Technology & Innovation
In 2015, the O’Neil Group Company purchased a three-building campus focused around the old Santa Fe Railroad Depot in Eastern Downtown Colorado Springs. Between renovation, expansion and a vision to bring small business, academia and government together to solve real problems, the Catalyst Campus has become a thriving environment for technological advancement and the delivery of capability to the Air Force and Space Force. The Catalyst Campus has supported the growth of the downtown Colorado Springs economy to the tune of over 1,000 employees and $270M in economic impact from a combined direct, indirect and induced effect on the economy according to a recent study.
C-TRAC is a 501 (C)(3) non-profit subsidiary of Catalyst Campus for Technology and Innovation that serves our country and bolsters our economy by bringing together government, education, and industry partners to meet our warfighter’s needs at market speed – fulfilling our vision of co-creating national capabilities.
The DoD Prototyping Guidebook lists C-TRAC as an example of a PIA – “public-facing intermediaries [that] help government organizations find, collaborate with, and contract with industry, labs, and academic partners to discover and develop innovative solutions to problems that the organization is trying to solve.”
C-TRAC has led the charge in this important work by facilitating Partnership Intermediary Agreements with Air Force CyberWorx and Air Force Research Labs, providing recruiting, teaming opportunities, business acceleration, commercial augmentation programs and much more. We are always in search of additional partners to leverage existing PIAs and establish new intermediary agreements.
In 1859, Colorado Springs history is marked with the founding of Colorado City which became the first settlement in the Pikes Peak region. It was the territorial capitol for a short period and served as a supply camp for miners traveling to the mining camps west of Denver.
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Passenger Depot or Santa Fe Station in Colorado Springs, Colorado is a historic railway station. The grand depot and Harvey House was built in 1917 as a joint Santa Fe/Colorado and Southern Railway facility. In 1972, the Santa Fe tracks through Colorado Springs were removed and rail operations were consolidated on the former Rio Grande trackage on the west side of town. The depot and the nearby express building (later used as a freight house) now serves as Catalyst Campus for Technology and Innovation.
The depot was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. It was deemed “significant for its architectural features and for the role it played in rail transportation in Colorado.’
Fred Harvey, namesake of the Harvey House, is infamous for the creation the first chain restaurant – opening his first depot restaurant in Topeka, KS, in 1876. In 1878, Mr. Harvey opened his first hotel and restaurant in Florence, Kansas and by 1891, 15 Harvey Houses (restaurants) were in operation.
