Industry News

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory is leasing 81,500-sf of a 150,000-sf building that will be constructed in Cambridge. Housing office and R&D space, the facility will consolidate three Cambridge locations into a new state-of-the-art facility located in the 40-acre wooded Cambridge Discovery Park, which is owned by the Bulfinch Cos. Inc. Occupancy is slated for the fourth quarter of 2005.

Rice University in Houston has completed the renovation and remodeling of 3,000 sf in Abercrombie Hall to accommodate nanotechnology research. The facility houses a Class 100 cleanroom, a Class 1000 cleanroom, a conference area, and lab support space. The contractor for the design/build project was McCarthy Building Companies of Dallas .

Fremont, Calif.-based Protein Design Labs has opened a 210,000-sf commercial-scale biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Brooklyn Park , Minn. The facility will produce humanized monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of conditions including cancer and inflammatory diseases.

Samsung Semiconductor LLP broke ground in late July 2004 on the second expansion phase of its Austin , Texas, chip manufacturing plant. The 34,000-sf, $500-million project will increase the plant’s capacity to produce nanoscale semiconductor memory technology. Completion is expected in three years.

Bridgestone Metalpha USA will expand its 690,000-sf production facility in the Clarksville-Montgomery County Corporate Business Park with the addition of 125,000 sf. The plant produces steel cord used as reinforcement in radial tires. Construction will begin on the $45-million project in February 2005 with increased production to begin in the first quarter of 2006. The expansion will include the addition of highly automated equipment, raising production capacity to 58,000 metric tons of steel cord annually.