Industry News

Dutch firm Qiagen's 200,000-sf Germantown manufacturing facility and U.S. headquarters will be operational in late February 2002 after two years of construction. The biotech firm plans to hire 300 employees, one-third of whom will work in R&D operations and two-thirds in manufacturing. Qiagen Sciences, Qiagen's U.S. subsidiary, makes products and tools for life science research.

Fortress Development has selected RTKL of Baltimore to provide design, master-planning, architecture, engineering, and telecommunications services for its 425-acre Loudoun County data center and office complex. Slated to begin construction in late 2002, the $500-million project, known as CYBERPLEX@DULLES, will feature a 110,000-sf multiple-tenant data center or office building.  

George Washington University selected Einhorn Yaffee Prescott architecture and engineering to design Townhouse Row, a series of eight student rowhouses. Totalling 68,500 sf, the four-story building will house 200 students and is slated to begin construction in August of 2002. The development will feature dining rooms, a kitchen and a private courtyard.

The Maryland Technology Development Center (MTDC) has completed a 5,000-sf expansion of its Rockville incubator, located in the Shady Grove Life Sciences Park, home to many young bioscience companies. The project entered the construction phase in November of 2001 and brought MTDC's total square footage up to 57,000 sf.  

Defense contractor BAE Systems is consolidating and expanding its corporate operations in Northern Virginia with a move to 134,000 sf of leased office space currently under construction at the Reston Commons. BAE Systems, based in Rockville, Md., will begin moving employees in phases beginning in June 2002.