Industry News

 Semiconductor manufacturer Extreme Devices is expanding by opening a bigger chip fabrication plant with adjoining offices in Southeast Austin. The combined 43,200-sf facility is a significant expansion from the firm's previous 6,000-sf location. The fabrication plant has cost Extreme Devices less than $10 million to build.

Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp. is considering locating a $125-million manufacturing plant in the 9,600-acre Alliance industrial park in Fort Worth. Developed by Ross Perot Jr.'s Hillwood venture, the site would house 180,000-sf of manufacturing and 35,000-sf of office space for Siemens' new stationary fuel cells division. Employing up to 500 workers initially, the plant could eventually expand to 430,000 sf of manufacturing and 70,000 sf of office space in the next three or four years. Other potential sites include Orlando, Fla. and Pittsburgh, Pa.

 Stanford University is building the James H. Clark Center for Biomedical Engineering Sciences, a 225,000-sf bio-science research facility slated for occupancy in 2003. Promoting the Stanford interdisciplinary initiative called Bio-X, Clark Center will house 50 faculty from biosciences, physical sciences and engineering.

Gigawave Technologies of San Antonio is preparing to move from an outgrown 3,000-sf  into a new 10,000-sf facility. Gigawave provides training services for Cisco Systems and for companies installing new wireless LANs.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Digital Optics Corp. has moved into a 100,000-sf manufacturing facility on 7 acres in University Research Park. Over the next five years the photonic chip manufacturer plans to triple its facilities on the site.