Industry News

Siebel Systems Inc. is consolidating two Atlanta offices with a move to a new office tower, the One Glenlake. Siebel provides commerce applications software enabling automation of sales and customer service operations for large companies. Siebel has committed to 60 percent of the building, leasing 195,000 sf of the available 353,000 sf in One Glenlake. The tower is the first of three office buildings in a development totalling 1 million sf. Construction began on One Glenlake on Nov. 1 of 2001 and is slated for completion in January of 2003.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning a new state-of-the-art emergency anthrax response center on its main Atlanta campus. Funded in part by a $3.9-million grant from the foundation of The Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, the center’s round-the-clock staffing will enable constant monitoring for potential health and safety threats and rapid mobilization.

Gannett’s new 880,000-sf McLean headquarters was completed in October of 2001. Located on 25 acres, the $300-million project, including $160-million in construction costs, features an additional 750,000-sf mostly underground parking garage. Architects Kohn Pederson Fox designed the base building, with Lehman-Smith + McLeish designing the interiors. Developed by Hines of Houston, the building is comprised of two connecting towers and houses a 20,000-sf fitness center, a mile-long jogging trail, a 400-seat employee café, and 2 acres of landscaped rooftop terraces.

American University is building the Park Bethesda Apartments, a student housing complex at the site of the former National Institutes of Health offices in Bethesda. Planned as a luxury apartment complex, the upscale development now under construction will house approximately 730 graduate and law students in 258 units. The 305,000-sf complex, designed by architect R.A. Ponte & Associates, will include studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and two-story, three-bedroom units.

Premium Distributors, a D.C. beer distributor, has built a new 154,000-sf headquarters in Washington. The one-story office building contains a partially submerged section where approximately one million cases of beer are refrigerated.  The $11-million building is the first development in the Fort Lincoln New Town section and features an indoor loading bay for delivery trucks. Architect Herring & Trowbridge designed the facility, which consolidates three former locations.