Industry News

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is scouting cities in central Texas for 200 acres on which to locate a proposed 300 mm chip fabrication plant. Cities under consideration include Austin, San Marcos, Buda, and Round Rock.  Construction is scheduled to begin in 2004 at an estimated cost of $4 billion. Austin is home to AMD's existing 200mm fab.

Tivoli Systems Inc. will consolidate its headquarters and scattered Austin-area offices at a new one million-sf campus adjacent to the local office of its parent company, IBM Corp. The two-phase project broke ground in November 2000 with a 200,000-sf structure to accommodate 700 employees. Phase two construction will include three additional buildings of the same approximate size, one housing a cafeteria. HOK Architects designed the campus. Engineering was provided by Bury+Partners Inc. The landscaping was done by Verdoorn Landscape Architects Inc.

Jusung America Inc., a Korean semiconductor equipment manufacturer with a US headquarters in Austin, is considering the construction of a 50,000-sf manufacturing and office facility to accommodate 300 people. A 20-acre site near the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is under consideration. It is anticipated that construction would take two years and cost tens of millions of dollars. The company is a subsidiary ofJusung Engineering Co. Ltd. of Korea.

ETS-Lindgren has consolidated its Austin, Florida, and Minnesota offices in a new 70,000-sf plant in Cedar Park. The company performs tests for electromagnetic compatibility, and manufactures products along that line. The lack of radio frequency noise at Cedar Park was one feature that attracted ETS to the site. Plant and equipment costs for the new facility amounted to $10 million. The company is a subsidiary of St. Louis-based ESCO Technologies.

Data-Centers Now, based in Rockville, Md., is planning CyberPlex@Dulles, a project comprising office space (2.4 million sf), telecom and Internet space (860,000 sf) and an electricity substation to provide power to the facility. The fortress-like data center, housing critical computer data and equipment, will be located at a 425-acre site in eastern Loudon County. The project is valued at $50 million over the next 10 years.