Industry News

Gaithersburg, Md.-based Avalon Pharmaceuticals is seeking a 44,000- to 55,000-sf Montgomery County facility to house its R&D and administrative departments. Programming and design has begun for the planned analytical and organic chemistry laboratories for drug discovery. The facility may be pre-existing or a building that can be retrofitted or built-out.

Environmental Defense, a nonprofit headquartered in New York, has relocated its consolidated Washington staff to a 19,000-sf “green” office in Washington. The consolidation project team included Staubach, architects Envision Design and Rand Construction.

Ground was broken on Inova Fairfax Hospital's new heart institute in earlly April. The $122-million, 280,000-sf Falls Church facility will be the first center devoted to treating cardiac disease in the Washington area. The four-story facility will be built by contractor Turner Construction and is slated for completion in spring of 2004. The 656-bed hospital will add an additional 156 beds, increase its cardiac operating room count from four to six, and gain additional electrophysiology and catheterization lab facilities.

American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), a nonprofit bioproducts resource center, is planning a $5-million expansion of its Prince William County facilities.

Georgia State University's Andrew Young School of Policy Studies will invest $10 million to renovate the Wachovia building in downtown Atlanta. The building will house the Center for Urban Policy Studies, the school's new nonprofit center, four research centers, and the economics and public administration departments upon completion.