Industry News

Nvidia, a computer-chip design firm based in Santa Clara, Calif., is expanding at the Meridian Office Park in Durham. The fabless semiconductor company will leave a 7,700-sf building at the Park for a 25,000-sf building next door. The company will move its 38 employees and a Ping-Pong table in January 2002 to the new structure, which will provide space for lab work and additional employees.

Pirelli Tire North America is developing a tire manufacturing facility in Rome, Ga. Site work has begun on the $140 million, 400,000-sf building housing office, research and manufacturing facilities. The plant is scheduled to open in mid-2002 and will provide tires for both new vehicles and the replacement tire market. H&M Co. of Jackson, Tenn., holds the design-build contract.

Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp. is considering the Alliance industrial park in Fort Worth as the home for its stationary-fuel-cells division. The $125 million, 500-employee manufacturing plant would initially consist of office space (35,000 sf) and manufacturing space (180,000 sf), with a possible expansion of the office space to 70,000 sf and the manufacturing space to 430,0000 sf in the next four years. Other potential sites include Orlando, Fla. and Pittsburgh.

Wyeth-Ayerst has commissioned Ewing Cole Cherry Brott of Philadelphia in collaboration with Fluor Daniel to provide architecture and engineering services for a new vaccine development center. The building will consolidate the company’s vaccine development centers currently located throughout the United States, reducing product development and manufacturing cycle time. It will include development process labs, analytical labs, various levels of biocontainment space, a research library, conference center, offices, and an employee cafeteria.

ARAMARK today announced that it has completed the acquisition of ServiceMaster Management Services, the facility services business of ServiceMaster.