Industry News

BioMerieux, a medical test products company based in France, is expanding at Teer Technical Parking in Durham. The 36,378-sf facility, formerly occupied by Organon Teknika, will house the company’s corporate sales office and training center, and will accommodate approximately 95 employees. BioMerieux currently has offices down the street from the new facility.

SPX, a Michigan company producing technical products and systems, has selected Balantine Corporate Park in Charlotte as the site of their new 100,000-sf office headquarters. Washington, D.C.-based Hickok Warner Fox will design the interior of the building, which will be constructed by Bissell Development. Completion is anticipated in April 2002, at which time at least 50 employees will move in.

George Mason University Foundation has received approval for construction of a seven-story office building with a six-story, underground parking structure in Virginia Square. The $60 million project will sit on nearly two acres and provide 192,500-sf for office space and 13,275 sf of retail space on the building’s first floor. Above- and below-ground parking will accommodate 671 vehicles. The foundation uses private tenant lease money for acquisition and construction costs, selling or donating the building to the university when the project has been paid for.

PPL Corp., a Pennsylvania energy company, plans to locate its Energy Plus division  adjacent to its headquarters in Allentown. Liberty Property Trust will convert a former department store site into a six- or seven-story building; PPL will occupy 170,000 sf of the facility. Liberty has selected Robert A.M. Stern Architects of New York to design the building, with groundbreaking possible in early 2002, and completion in spring 2003. PPL plans to build a 1,000-vehicle parking deck nearby.

REMEC Inc. has plans for an 81,000-sf expansion at Parkway Business Centre, where the company’s wireless products division has a 65,000-sf R&D facility. The expansion includes all of the Parkway Centre Five building, where construction is expected to be complete in September 2001. The structure will accommodate the company’s broadband radio, mobile wireless infrastructure, as well as the wireless division’s manufacturing. KMA Architecture and Engineering is the architect for the project; R.G. Petty is the general contractor.