Industry News

Telecom giant WorldCom Inc., based in Clinton, Miss., opened a new 110,000-sf data center in Billerica in October 2001. The facility offers security, climate-control, and power-supply features, as well as on-site tech support, bandwidth options, performance reporting, and access to WorldCom’s global Internet protocol network. WorldCom’s long-term goal is to open approximately 70 data centers around the world that offer the company’s hosting and Internet-services business.

Visa International will add a fourth building at its 8.5-acre campus in Foster City. Construction is expected to begin in spring 2002 on the six-story, 199,404-sf building. Swinerton Builders built the first of Visa’s three buildings, and is thought to have been selected as contractor for the new project.

A subsidiary of Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications, has opened a new 136,000-sf building at a 12-acre site in Valley Forge. The new three-story facility will consolidate 500 company employees currently housed in three separate locations in the area.

The Food and Drug Administration’s new 350,000-sf Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition opened in October. The $62.5-million life sciences and chemistry lab facility consolidates three offices from the D.C. area, and accommodates approximately 950 employees. Planning and construction of the building took four years. The general contractor for the project is Tomkins.

The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms’ scheduled ribbon-cutting ceremony was postponed by the General Services Administration pursuant to the terrorist attacks. The $104-million building is being designed by architect Moshe Safdie to accommodate approximately 1,100 employees in 295,000 sf. Parking spots for 200 are also included in the project.