Industry News

Praecis Pharmaceuticals, based in Cambridge, Mass., will relocate its headquarters and R&D lab operations to a new 175,000-sf structure in Waltham. The three-story shell was designed by Jung Brannen Associates of Boston; the contractor that built the shell was John Moriarty & Associates of Winchester. Praecis will use the same firms to complete the facility. Praecis will move into all but 32,000 sf of the facility in early 2001, subleasing the unoccupied space until needed.

U.S. Department of Agriculture has consolidated operations from 13 regional offices in six states at the new Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Eastern Regional Hub at North Carolina State University's Centennial campus in Raleigh. The 35,000-sf hub, located in the Venture II building, accommodates Animal Care and Investigative and Enforcement Services; Plant Protection and Quarantine; Veterinary Services; and Wildlife Services. The current staff of 80 is expected to grow to 150 people by the end of 2000.

Applied Biosystems Group, based in Foster City, Calif., plans to develop a 960,000-sf Pleasanton campus over the next eight years that will eventually house as many as 2,600 employees. Applied Biosystems will initially occupy about 100,000 sf of the 300,000 sf of office, lab, and warehouse space that currently exists at the 80-acre site. In 2001, the company plans to build between 250,000 and 300,000 sf of office, lab, light manufacturing, and warehouse space. The company is working to decode the human genome.

Human Genome Sciences hopes to relocate its 600 employees from Rockville, Md., to a 45-acre headquarters in North Potomac. Preliminary plans for the new campus: a 400,000-sf to 500,000-sf initial build-out, with the potential for up to one million sf. Pending approval by the Montgomery County Planning Board in July, final relocation plans will be ready by fall. Construction could begin by summer 2001, with move-in sometime in 2003. Head-count at the facility could reach 2,500 over the next several years.

U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory has awarded a contract for comprehensive engineering design and construction services to a team comprised of San Francisco-based URS Corporation, Burns & Roe and Technical Design. The indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract runs for five years, with five option years, and has a potential value of $25 million per year.