Industry News

New York Life Insurance Co. will locate its new $140-million Forsyth County data center in The Meadows 300, a 95,000-sf BellSouth Entertainment unit facility. Slated to begin operations by year-end 2003, the data center will store and handle customer files.

Kaiser Permanente will begin construction of a 637,000-sf medical center on its Antioch campus in 2004. The project will include a 297,000-sf medical office and a 340,000-sf, 150-bed hospital. The medical center is slated to open in 2007, pending regulatory approval. Kaiser is also building a 50,000-sf medical center in Tracy, Calif. expected to reach completion in spring 2005.

Samsung Austin Semiconductor is initiating a $500-million improvement of its Austin, Texas plant. Adding 40,000-sf of cleanroom space, the project will update the facility from 130-nanometer to 90-nanometer technology beginning in May 2003. The facility is owned by Seoul, Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

Wyeth Vaccines is planning to lease approximately 82,000 sf of flex space in the Keystone Office and Industrial Park in Durham, N.C. The research laboratory is expected to open in 2003 and will house up to 100 researchers. Wyeth is continuing to develop its 472,000-sf Sanford campus, where it completed a 115,000-sf manufacturing expansion in December 2002. A 50,000-sf addition to the expansion is currently under way. Wyeth Vaccines is a business unit of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Madison, N.J.-based Wyeth.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has selected the New England Division of Skanska USA Building as program manager for the redevelopment of the Quissett Campus in Woods Hole, Mass. The project includes a new biogeochemistry laboratory building, a marine research laboratory facility, upgrades to the campus central plant, and alterations to the process and septic systems for the campus. The laboratory buildings are scheduled to begin construction in late 2003, pending regulatory approval.