Industry News

Texas-based Dell Inc. has awarded the site grading contract for its new 500,000-sf computer manufacturing plant in Winston-Salem, N.C., to Blythe Development.  Construction is expected to begin by the end of January 2005.

Site preparation has begun on Target Corp. 's new $110-million retail distribution center in De Kalb, Ill. The 1.5 million-sf facility will initially employ 500 workers and will potentially double that count over the next few years.

Construction has begun on the $50.5-million Morgan Hill Courthouse and Justice Agencies Complex in Morgan Hill, Calif. The 73,000-sf, two-story plus basement Superior Court building will house a court clerk's office, six courtrooms, jury assembly and deliberation spaces, and day-holding detention spaces. The adjacent one-story, 17,000-sf Justice Agencies facility will accommodate offices for the probation department, county district attorney, and public defender. Occupancy is slated for August 2006.

Genentech has signed a lease for 780,000 sf in South San Francisco, which may be the largest single lease ever penned in the northern California Bay Area. Developer Slough Estates will construct the three-, four-, and eight-story life science facilities in two phases over the next four years. Construction cost is estimated at approximately $325 million. The project will consist of roughly 40 percent office and 60 percent laboratory space.

Boston University Medical Center has received final approval from the Boston Redevelopment Authority for its 410,000-sf BioSquare Phase II project in Boston. Funded by a $128 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the project will include a BSL-4 research laboratory and a 1,400-space parking garage. The facility will be part of a national network of laboratories dedicated to countering bioterror agents by developing drugs, treatments, and vaccines.