Industry News

American Airlines is in involved in a $1.3-billion redevelopment of its John F. Kennedy International Airport terminal. Featuring three concourses on three levels with 55 gates and a passenger check-in the size of a football stadium, the facility will be JFK's largest terminal upon completion. The new building will include a new international arrivals facility that will be able to process up to 2,400 people an hour. The terminal will be able to accommodate up to 14 million passengers annually when the project is completed in September 2006.

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.