Industry News

 The United States Institute of Peace will convert a parking lot near the Vietnam and Korean war memorials into a 75,000- to 100,000-sf facility to promote the use of peaceful means in the prevention, management, and resolution of international conflicts. The $31- to $35 million structure will house approximately 60 employees. It will accommodate both conference and research space as well as an exhibit area, and will provide 340 underground parking spaces, to be shared with the nearby Navy medical facility.

Rainin Instrument Co., based in Emeryville, Calif., is building a $15 million, 185,000-sf office and manufacturing facility on 7.8 acres in Oakland’s Hegenberger corridor, where biotech companies and their suppliers are beginning to congregate. The new facility is slated to open in October 2001, and will accommodate an addition of 60 employees to its existing 250-member staff. Rainin manufactures pipettes used by biology, biotechnology, and chemical companies. Architect for the project is Jordan Woodman Dobson.

Bio-Tech Imaging (BTI), based in Frederick, Md., has opened a 33,000-sf production plant in Shreveport. The $15 million facility will produce the company’s “Tagger”AIDS-detection kits. Currently the kits are used for private scientific research. BTI is awaiting FDA approval to extend marketing of the kits to hospitals, doctors, and blood banks. BTI hopes to occupy the plant by early 2002.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has decided that its new 650,000-sf headquarters—called Station Place—will be built adjacent to Union Station and the Thurgood Marshall Building. The architect for the project is New York-based Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates; it will be developed by Louis Dreyfus Properties, also of New York. December 2003 is the scheduled occupancy date.

University Hospitals of Cleveland is planning a new $110 million, 320,000-gsf Research Institute Building for advanced biomedical research programs, scheduled to open in 2003. Research functions are distributed over eight floors, including two floors below grade dedicated to lab and building support. The ground floor level includes a conferences center; administrative offices are on the second floor. Five floors of generic research labs, lab support, and offices will accommodate 120 researchers on each floor.