Industry News

Kaiser Permanente is leasing a new $12-million facility in Daly City slated for occupancy in the fourth quarter of 2002. Designed by MBH Architects of Alameda, the 120,000-sf medical building will house additional space for women's services, adult medicine, and the entire ophthalmology department. Developed by Dewey Land Co. of San Mateo, Calif., and CKAM of Palo Alto, Calif., the facility is being built by general contractor South Bay Construction.  

Oil refiner Valero Energy Corp. has contracted SpawGlass Contractors of San Antonio to build its new headquarters on the existing 148-acre Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corp. campus recently acquired by Valero.

Yale University School of Medicine selected Boston-based Jung/Brannen Associates Inc. to design a new 28,400-sf research facility. The lab will occupy half of the second floor of the 300 George Biotech Laboratory Building.

Simeon Properties is planning to redevelop the 86-acre former Zenica site in Richmond, Calif., to build the $100 million Western Research Center, a multi-phase biotech incubator. The first $50-million, 330,000-sf phase will involve demolishing six buildings, moving two existing buildings and building two additional facilities. The second phase will encompass 180,000 sf in two more buildings. A possible third phase, dependent on an entitlement from the City of Richmond and environmental remediation, would open up the remaining 55 acres.

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.