Industry News

UNC Hospitals is planning to replace the Gravely Building, home of the North Carolina Clinical Cancer Center, with a new $140-million cancer tower in Chapel Hill. The 300,000-sf facility will provide complete outpatient cancer care, housing physician and specialist offices, radiation and chemotherapy facilities, and a pharmacy. Part of UNC's facility master plan, the cancer tower, which has yet to be designed, will be developed over the next five years.

Duke University Medical Center in Durham plans to increase outpatient treatment capacity from 80 to 125 patients per day with a $3.5-million renovation of its comprehensive cancer center. Duke will add 10 treatment stations and 27 waiting room chairs.

MBA Polymers, a Richmond plastics recycling company, is raising $3-million in VC funding to design a new commercial plant. The facility will cost approximately $20-million to build. Due to rising energy costs for daytime operations, the plant may not be located in the San Francisco Bay Area, but in a location where the plant can operate at full capacity year-round.

The University of California San Francisco-Parnassus is planning a new $39.7-million seismic replacement laboratory. McCarthy will build the five-story, 86,000-sf facility, which will be completely seismic compliant. Included in the structure, scheduled for June 2004 completion, will be state-of-the-art equipment washing systems and numerous care and surgery facilities. Architect for the project is Flad & Associates of San Francisco.

Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, working with project manager and builder McCarthy, has completed its new $55-million Life Science and High Technology Center. The biotech project included construction of a 145,000-sf lab building to house 220 life scientists. With three stories above grade and one below, the building also features a three-story atrium, and an attached 12,000-sf learning center. Architects for the project were Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum (HOK) and Lockwood Greene, both of St. Louis.