Vision quest: brainstorming begins on Nashua tech parkplan.

A more than 200-acre site off of Spit Brook Road in south Nashua, already home to several high-tech businesses, could be the site of a research and technology park that is still in its earliest conceptual stages.

The park is a major initiative that would take cooperation from the private

"We have no idea just what the scope of this park would be," Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce President Chris Williams said during a half-day summit earlier this month to trade visions for the proposed Nashua Technology Park,

Although the idea of a tech park in Nashua is far from new, the meeting marked the first time the people with the resources and connections to make it happen convened in one room to move the process along. Among them were high-tech business leaders, city and state politicians, academic leaders and real estate experts. Ideas were tossed back and forth during three panel discussions at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nashua.

The Flatley Co., a Braintree, Mass., real estate firm, announced it has earmarked a huge parcel off of Exit 1 on the Everett Turnpike for the park, which is a longtime vision of the company's founder.

It's unclear whether the park would focus on attracting established high-tech companies, providing incubator space for startups, or some combination of both. Universities and colleges in the state would be involved in some capacity, but the extent of the partnership is yet to be defined.

Several panelists agreed the tech park should be governed by its own entity--perhaps a board of directors--so that sole control doesn't rest in the hands of people with specific interests, whether they represent government, private interests or academia.