Industry News

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. will invest $350 million in the next two years to convert its Fab 25 processor chip plant in Austin into a flash memory plant. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chip manufacturer hopes to equip the plant to last through the next two generations of chip technology. Flash memory enables devices to retain memory and information without active power supply to the device.

Chip manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices Inc., based in Sunnyvale, Calif., is seeking 90,000 sf of office space in Austin to house Alchemy Semiconductor, which AMD recently purchased. The facility will be home to Personal Connectivity Solutions, a newly formed AMD division focused on non-PC product devices. Alchemy’s lease on 20,000 sf in Austin expires at the end of April. Alchemy develops and markets microprocessors.

Slough Estates USA is awaiting final approval to build the Britannia East Grand, a 783,533-sf biotech lab campus planned for the site of the former ICI paint factory in South San Francisco. The project, which would take the British firm’s South San Francisco holdings to more than 2.7 million sf, will go before the review board in April, and could break ground by mid-year.

Verizon New Jersey’s new customer call center is being built in Hamilton by Cranford-based real estate investment trust Mack-Cali Realty Corp. The $10.7 million, 95,000-sf facility is located in Mack-Cali’s Horizon Center Business Park. Construction on the single-story property is slated for completion in the fourth quarter of 2002. Verizon New Jersey is a division of Verizon Communications.

Sacred Heart Medical Center, part of the PeaceHealth network, has awarded the Portland office of Turner Construction Company the contract to provide pre-construction and general contracting services for a $280-million replacement hospital in Springfield, Ore. Pre-construction begins immediately and construction is scheduled for completion in 2007.