Industry News

The University of Georgia Athletic Association opened the Rankin M. Smith Sr. Student Athlete Academic Center on October 12. The $6.7-million, 31,000-sf center houses a multimedia classroom, computer labs, writing center, tutoring rooms, counselor's office and a 250-seat lecture and meeting hall.

Swiss pharmaceutical Novartis AG is renovating over 500,000-sf at the Necco (New England Confectionary Company) property in Cambridge for biotech use. Novartis plans to employs 600 technology experts, scientists and support staff at the facility. The lease is in addition to Novartis' previous Cambridge lease of 450,000 sf to house its worldwide research group.

Aircuity, a Newton, Mass.-based manufacturer of intelligent building performance tools, was recently awarded an R&D 100 award for the Aircuity Building Performance Evaluation System. The automated monitoring system collects and interprets indoor air quality information via a user-friendly portable monitor and a secure Web-based data management system. A diagnostic program analyzes and interprets air quality data, delivering comprehensive reports on building performance.

Medical device and spine implant company Spinal Concepts is finishing out 24,000 sf of space subleased from Sun Microsystems that will double the size of its existing Austin headquarters. Located in North Austin's Parmer Lane Business Park, the facility will provide space for expanded sales operations and product inventory. The project is slated for completion in November.

The University of Georgia is planning to build a $10-million, 33,000-sf commercial pharmaceutical manufacturing facility at the University's Riverbend Research Village in Athens. Designed by Lockwood Green of Spartanburg, S.C., the project's construction will be managed by Atkins Hanscomb Faithful & Gould of Atlanta. The building will include research labs, classrooms, offices, and bioprocessing and manufacturing space for solid oral dosage medicines. The project is slated for groundbreaking in May 2003.