CHAMPAIGN – Kim Laboratories will move from EnterpriseWorks to the Rantoul Business Center at the end of this month, Chief Executive Officer Myung Kim said.

The biotechnology company, which employs eight, is leaving the business incubator center in the University of Illinois Research Park after six years.

Kim said he looked at other sites in the research park and around Champaign-Urbana before deciding Rantoul offered "the best price for the space."

He said he'll pay $9 per square foot in Rantoul, compared with rents ranging from $13 to $28 per square foot elsewhere. Plus, the Rantoul rate covers utilities and maintenance, he said.

It will be a longer commute for most employees and farther away from talent on campus, but it was difficult to justify paying that much for those advantages, he said.

Kim's firm is developing diagnostic kits for the norovirus, which sickens 23 million Americans a year. Hospitals and cruise ships are envisioned as primary users of the kits.

The company also plans to launch a disinfectant spray for norovirus in Asian markets, including Korea, Japan, China and southeast Asia, this fall, he said.

Kim Labs, in partnership with another investor, has established a joint venture company in Korea, Enmaster Biochemical, to market the disinfectant spray Norocide. Targeted as primary users are health care services and food and manufacturing companies.

Kim said the company's long-term plan is to use antibodies to make therapeutic drugs to cure the norovirus infection and to create a vaccine for norovirus.

Company sales so far this year total about $170,000, mainly from the sale of antibodies and from research services, he added.

Kim said his lease at the Rantoul Business Center, 601 S. Century Blvd., is for two years with a three-year extension option.

He's leasing 1,600 square feet, and "it has a lot of space that we can expand if we want to in the future," he said. He credited Rantoul Economic Development Director Robert Bruce for his assistance and resident architect Martin Alblinger for designing the lab and coordinating with construction contractors.

"I feel quite good that we can be a part of Rantoul's economy and social network," Kim said, adding the village hasn't gotten the attention it's deserved since Chanute Air Force Base closed in the 1990s.

Dan DoBell, the UI's assistant manager of research park and incubator facilities, said several other companies are "graduating" from EnterpriseWorks after spending early years there. Among them:

– Eden Park Illumination, a lighting technology company that recently moved its research-and-development office to Country Fair Drive in Champaign.

– Starfire Industries, an advanced plasma technology company, that moves to 2109 S. Oak St. in the UI Research Park on July 1.

Starfire President Brian Jurczyk, who founded the company with Robert Stubbers in 2001 and moved it to EnterpriseWorks in 2004, said Starfire will occupy 5,000 square feet at its new location. Starfire has 10 full-time employees and several student interns and does nuclear and space propulsion research.

Scheduled to move from EnterpriseWorks East – formerly the Technology Commercialization Building – are Distant Focus, Vision Technology and D&E Technical, DoBell said. Use of that building at 2004 S. Wright St. Extended, U, is being phased out.

John Hart of Vision Technology said that company plans to stay in Champaign-Urbana but hasn't determined a location yet. The firm has three full-time employees and four interns.

Dan Maloney of D&E Technical said a new location hadn't been determined, but he's negotiating for space in the research park.