Industry News

BPB, a wall and ceiling products manufacturer, will construct a $100-million gypsum wallboard plant in Roxboro, N.C. Slated to open in 2007, the facility will produce 700 million-sf of gypsum wallboard annually.

Time Warner Cable is expanding with the construction of a $36-million facility adjacent to its existing offices in Charlotte, N.C. Time Warner, the second-largest operator of cable systems in the nation, currently employs 700 workers in Charlotte and plans to expand operations with 350 new jobs to include additional functions.

Albuquerque-based TCI Medical plans to break ground on a Carlsbad, Calif., manufacturing plant by June 2004 to produce its medical products. TCI, a startup nuclear pharmaceutical company, provides radioactive isotopes for the diagnosis and treatment of heart ailments, cancer, and circulatory problems.

Cullman, Md.-based Webb Wheel Products is planning to build a $22.5-million manufacturing facility in Tell City that will produce wheel and drum components for the heavy truck industry. The $2.5-million project is slated for completion in January 2005. Perry County, Ind., gave the site to the company and is underwriting site preparation. Webb Wheel Products is a unit of Marmon Highway Technologies of Chicago.

The University of Houston will complete the $76-million Science and Engineering Research and Classroom Complex in spring of 2006. Designed by Cesar Pelli, the facility will enable collaboration between researchers from the Cullen College of Engineering and the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. The complex will accommodate research in biotechnology, nano-lithography, DNA chips, protein chips, materials, optoelectronics, synthetic medicinal chemistry, and drug design.