Industry News

Ae Group ag, a German maker of automotive and aerospace die-casting parts, will invest $15 million to construct its North American headquarters and manufacturing plant in LaGrange, Ga. The 200,000-sf facility will feature a robotics and automation intensive high-pressure aluminum die casting line and a machining line. Construction on the facility will begin in August 2005 with the plant becoming operational in early 2006. Ae Group ag plans to invest a total of $50 million in the Georgia plant over the next five years.

The Food and Drug Administration has completed the 551,000-sf Center for Drug Evaluation and Research in White Oak, Md. Housing 1,750 employees, the facility is the largest building at the new FDA headquarters complex under construction in White Oak. Upon completion in 2010, the FDA campus will include 3.1 million sf of office and lab space and will consolidate employees from 48 leased sites in Maryland.

Towson University is engaged in an expansion and renovation of its Center for the Arts in Towson, Md. The $53-million project adds 134,000 sf to the original 166,000-sf structure for a total of 300,000 sf. New facilities in the center include a 140-seat recital hall, a recording studio, a black box theater, a costume design shop, art galleries, and classroom. Accommodating programs for the university's music, theater, art, and dance departments, the expansion was designed by Baltimore-based Design Collective Inc.

The University of Pittsburgh will open the $205-million Biomedical Science Tower 3 in August 2005. Construction of the 330,000-sf facility was overseen by Mascaro Construction Co. The ten-story tower plus basement will house programs in structural biology; genomics; proteomics; computational biology and informatics; drug discovery; neurodegenerative disease research; and counter-bioterrorism vaccine research. The facility was designed with each half of a floor as a large lab with 28 movable, modular benches.

Northwest Missouri State University (NMSU) is developing the 140,000-sf Missouri Center of Excellence for Plant Biologics in Maryville, Mo. The $30-million on-campus facility will house industry tenants as well as academic researchers. The facility is comprised of two major centers, the Graduate Applied Research Center and the Plant Biologics Incubator.