Industry News

 The Institute for International Economics will soon move to a new 25,000-sf headquarters in Washington. The building was designed by New York-based Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and built over 14 months by Sigal Construction. The developer of the project is Kaempfer. The Institute is a private, non-profit research organization.

VeriSign, an Internet services company, plans to consolidate eight Northern Virginia offices at Waterview I, a 405,000-sf office building under construction in Herndon designed to accommodate 1,600 employees. Tishman Speyer Properties is developing the project, which is scheduled for completion in October 2001. VeriSign has an option on two as-yet-unbuilt structures -- Waterview II and Waterview III -- which will total 450,000 sf.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, a new 746,000-sf, 10-story building, was dedicated in September. The $203.5-million structure provides office space (296,000 sf); common space, including a conference center, employee cafeteria, and a Monetary Museum (84,000 sf); and support equipment (110,000 sf). An $11-million façade occupies 46,000 sf. Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates Inc. of Atlanta in association with New York-based  Robert A.M. Stern Architects,   designed the building. BTMI Buildings was the construction manager.

The Office of Homeland Security may move into a 339,000-sf, eight-story stand-alone building with secure parking -- the largest block of contiguous office space available in Washington. The General Services Administration is bidding for the space against CareFirst BlueCross Blue Shield, which is also looking to house its 1,275 employees in the city.

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.