Industry News

Sweden-based AstraZeneca is adding 80,000-sf to its 190,000-sf Waltham facility. The project is slated for completion in 2003.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute dedicated the WPI Bioengineering Institute in July. Worcester Polytechnic plans to collect the 4,500-sf of lab and office space, currently in disparate campus locations, in one building. The Institute's first tenant company is Insight Neuroimaging Systems LLC, a developer of radio-frequency coils for MRI machines.

Inova Health System broke ground on Sept. 24 on an $18-million emergency department expansion at Inova Fairfax Hospital/Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children. The emergency facilities will be expanded by 11,000 sf of additional space, and 20,650 sf of existing space will be renovated. The project will increase the number of treatment spaces form 35 to 54, as well as adding new trauma rooms, 12 pediatric treatment rooms, 19 acute care treatment rooms, a 7,300-sf ambulance bay, and a helipad.

Kubota Corp., Japan's largest farm equipment maker, has purchased a 170,000-sf distribution facility in Oakwood South Industrial Park. The facility will accommodate assembly of larger tractors, alleviating operations at Kubota's 220,000-sf facility in Suwanee. Kubota also has a 600,000-sf manufacturing facility in Gainesville. The new plant is sited on 18 acres purchased by Kubota; an additional 32 adjacent to the site was purchased to facilitate future expansion.

The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School has completed the $139.9-million Jon M. Huntsman Hall. Providing the business school with the latest technology, the 324,000-sf building features 48 classrooms equipped with multimedia, broadband audio, and videoconferencing capabilities provided to the school's San Francisco, France, and Singapore programs. Special infrared hearing devices enable the hearing-impaired to listen to lectures.