SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- It's a place for development and research, and it just keeps on growing. Big changes are coming to the West Virginia Regional Technology Park in South Charleston, and officials expect it to boost the local economy.

The brand-new Kanawha Valley College building will soon be filled with 1,600 students. Classes start Aug. 20, bringing tons of new faces to the park and into town.

"That always reinvigorates things," said Charlie Dennie, who works at the park. "Makes the restaurants hard to get into and jams up the roads. There's a whole lot of activity, and anytime you have activity things are going to happen."

The new students will share the Tech Park with agriculture researchers from West Virginia State University, who are also moving in and calling it their new home.

Barbara Liedl is a professor of agriculture who says the Tech Park space saved her studies.

"They ran out space years ago in the science department of West Virginia State," she said. "This is the only place in Southern West Virginia that has science-quality facilities."

But the changes don't stop there. Construction is beginning on another addition -- a 50,000 square foot advanced technology center. Officials say that's just another piece of a long-term plan to build up the park and the economy.

"Our goal is to go back to the future and recreate the old Union Carbide Technical Center," executive director and CEO Phil Halstead said. "We want to repopulate this place. It currently has about 700 jobs ... we want to grow that into 3,000 jobs."

Halstead says the park also will welcome 50 Toyota specialists for automotive training through Bridgemont College.