Thirteen years ago, a group of area civic and business leaders branded Kansas Highway 10 as “America’s Smart Corridor.”

The group placed monument signs at points along the highway and announced its intention to attract high-quality, high-tech developments to the area.

Today, the group is still going strong, with regular meetings with stakeholders in Lawrence, Olathe and cities in between.

And there are plenty of projects in the works today, said Rich Caplan, executive director of the K-10 Association.

“The most exciting thing along the corridor is the K-State Olathe Innovation Campus,” Caplan said.

That campus, paid for with funds from the Johnson County Education Research Triangle sales tax, will include a 103,000-square-foot National Institute for Food Safety and Security, which will be used for educational space. The bioscience focus of the campus fits in with the rest of the development along the corridor, Caplan said.

In Lawrence, the association is looking toward new development projects such as recently completed The Oread hotel, and is looking at the potential development of the former Farmland Industries fertilizer plant site at the eastern edge of the city along K-10, said Mike Amyx, Lawrence mayor and vice president of the K-10 Association.

“We have readjusted the scope” of the organization since its inception, Amyx said. “We’re looking at a number of things that will have an effect on the K-10 corridor. At the same time, there’s a number of things already in place.”

Caplan said the “smart” aspect of the developments that the association is trying to attract plays into one of the strengths of the region. Johnson County has one of the higher percentages of its population with college degrees in the country, he said.

The quality of the workforce is key, as is the quality of the surrounding educational institutions, Caplan said — pointing to the anchors of the corridor with Kansas University in Lawrence, and Johnson County Community College and Kansas State’s innovation campus in Johnson County.

The association is keeping an eye on projects in the works, including a large-scale hotel project planned for Olathe near the Ridgeview Road exit on K-10.

Olathe City Council approved the 11-story, $75 million Embassy Suites Hotel and adjacent conference center in June 2008. John Q. Hammons Hotels is set to manage the hotel.

“We welcome all kinds of business growth,” Caplan said.

That said, companies like OncImmune, which markets early cancer detection blood tests in De Soto, truly represent the kind of development the association is trying to foster in the area, Caplan said. The biotechnology company was founded by Dr. John Robertson at the University of Nottingham in England.

Its U.S. headquarters opened in 2006 in Lenexa before moving to De Soto in 2008.

The K-10 association, in addition to playing an economic development role, also looks to maintain other development regulations among the cities, such as setbacks from the highway, Amyx said.

Caplan said the association is watching a number of infrastructure improvements as well, including a planned reconstruction of the interchange of K-10, Interstate 435 and Interstate 35 in Johnson County.

“When the economy rebounds, the communities that have the infrastructure, they’re going to be in the best position and they’re going to go far,” Caplan said.

The association’s board of directors includes representation from area cities, school districts, and business and development communities.

It serves as a mechanism for the surrounding communities to keep up on each other’s progress, Amyx said.

There’s been a healthy amount of that progress, even though it has slowed slightly during the recession, Caplan said.

And, he said, all that development on K-10 will mean more people using the road in the future, and populating the cities and school districts in the communities it serves.

“We’re thrilled,” he said.