Industry News

Community Education Partners Inc. has purchased a 167,000-sf structure in Philadelphia to convert into a modern educational facility housing approximately 1500 students. Purchased for $3.5 million from yarn maker and spinner Coren-Indik Inc., the former manufacturing facility and adjacent land is slated for an $18-million to $20-million renovation.

The University of Pennsylvania Riverview Campus master plan has been completed by Cambridge, Mass.-based Tsoi/Kobus & Associates. The 20-acre Philadelphia Civic Center site will be transformed into a mixed-use healthcare and research center serving the needs of the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania.

The Paul D. Coverdell Building at the University of Georgia will house the Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute, which will focus on public health, molecular medicine, and infectious disease and immunity. This new research institute will connect UGA researchers with similar interests as well as generating biomedical research funding. As an educational and administrative structure, the Institute will develop interdisciplinary graduate programs in biomedical and health sciences, strengthen existing programs, and expand into new research areas.

A subsidiary of Nestle SA, Alcon Laboratories Inc. is in the early stages of planning a 400,000-sf expansion of its Fort Worth R&D facility. Approval by Switzerland-based Nestle is pending for construction of the $20-million to $30-million expansion.

TestChip Technologies is expanding from 4,000 sf to  30,000 sf in Austin as part of the company's drive to increase its R&D work. A developer of chips that test the semiconductor manufacturing process, the Plano-based firm will be adding 100 employees to its Texas operations. TestChip primarily supplies wafer foundries.