Industry News

The Institute for Economic Development will occupy its new $6-million facility in downtown San Antonio by July of 2003. Located near the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), the new facility will enable collaboration with UTSA faculty and interns. Ground was broken on the 33,000-sf facility last March. The Institute of Economic Development will relocate its 90 employees from its current KellyUSA location to the four-story facility, which is wired for videoconferencing and distance-business learning workshops.

Quest Diagnostics will locate a new regional testing facility in 110,145-sf at Oak Park Office Center in West Houston. Comprised of a regional office and reference medical laboratory, the facility will be a consolidation of three office and laboratory locations currently housed in separate buildings near Houston’s Texas Medical Center. Over 500 employees will staff the 24-hour operation. The laboratory component will be approximately 50 percent of the leased space. Occupancy is slated for year-end 2003. The project architect is the Houston office of Gensler.

Healthcare giant HCA has selected Skanska to develop several addition and renovation construction projects. These include the Metropolitan Methodist Hospital and the Northeast Methodist Hospital, both located in San Antonio, Texas. Skanska will also be renovating the Lewis-Gale Hospital in Salem, Virginia. The company provided feasibility/pre-construction services for these three projects. The Metropolitan Methodist Hospital will include a 90,000-sf women’s services center, a catheter lab addition and a new connector bridge.

The Maritime College, a specialized college of the State University of New York, has selected the New York division of Skanska USA Building as construction manager for a new dormitory building on its Throggs Neck campus. The project is being developed in conjunction with the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York. The new 300-bed residence hall will be a four-story steel structure. At the rear of the building, sections of glass curtainwall will allow students to view Long Island Sound from one of the centrally located lounge areas.

Biomedical Research Models of Worcester, Mass., has relocated part of its operations to 10,000 sf in Springfield. The facility is slated to open in early July of 2003. Biomedical Research Models is affiliated with the Springfield-based Bio-Economic Technology Alliance (BETA), an organization focused on the development of a cluster of biotech manufacturing companies in the area.