Industry News

The Montgomery County Department of Economic Development expects to break ground on the $2.5-million Silver Spring Innovation Center in summer of 2003. The free-standing 20,000-sf Silver Spring business incubator will house 12 to 15 companies. The facility will be ready for occupancy approximately six months after construction begins.

Rutgers University School of Business at Camden is working with the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology and the Delaware River Port Authority to create a non-profit business incubator in 20,000 sf of the former West Jersey Hospital in downtown Camden. The incubator is housed on the fifth floor of the five-building, 270,000-sf hospital complex. Former patient rooms were renovated to create 35 high-tech suites of 250 sf each which can be doubled to 500 sf.

Enplas Inc., a Japan-based manufacturer of plastic parts and products, plans to expand its operations with the $2.3-million purchase of a 47,000-sf office building in Georgia. The facility was previously used as a multi-tenant office/warehouse.

Onramp Access, an Austin-based Internet service provider, relocated its headquarters on March 1, 2003 from 9,000 sf of office and 2,000 sf of data center space in downtown Austin to a leased facility in East Austin with 12,000 sf of office space and a data center totalling 9,000 sf. 

North Carolina State University has selected Boney Architects of Wilmington, with an office in Raleigh, as project architect for the planned $9-million Friday Institute. The 32,000-sf educational research and teacher training center will be located next to the Centennial Campus Middle School in Raleigh. Groundbreaking is slated for early 2004.