Industry News

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in partnership with the General Services Administration (GSA) broke ground in March 2001 at the former Naval Surface Warfare Center on Phase 1a of the four-story, 114,000-gsf Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Washington-based C&R Construction is performing the excavation work. The GSA has not yet awarded the Phase 1b construction contract, but completion of the facility is anticipated in fall 2002.

The U.S. General Services Administration's National Center for Health Statistics will have a new headquarters at Metro IV, a 200,000-sf office facility to be built at the proposed University Town Center, a mixed-use complex at Prince George's Metro Center. Weihe Design Group PLLC (WDG) has been selected to design the building. Blue Chair Design, WDG's interiors division, will provide interior design services. Construction is scheduled to begin summer 2001.

Chase Manhattan Bank, recently merged with J.P. Morgan & Co., will relocate its global division to the new 15-story Tower II building under construction at the J.P. Morgan International Plaza near Dallas. The 405,000-sf structure will house over 3,000 employees engaged in securities processing, fund accounting, and technology (systems development and support). Completion is planned for February 2002, with the addition of a cafeteria, fitness center, and child care center by June 2002. Wilcox Development Services is the developer of the Plaza project.

Sun Microsystems has plans for a new six-building office campus at the Dublin Transit Center. Sun purchased 12 acres from Alameda County for its 750,000-sf complex, which will include the buildings, parking structures, and groundfloor retail.

Deere & Co., based in Moline, Ill., has expanded plans for its 65-acre campus in Cary to accommodate as many as 2,000 employees in four 160,000-sf buildings. It will serve as headquarters for John Deere Worldwide Commercial and Consumer Equipment Division, accommodating 500 employees when completed in October 2001. The new master plan calls for three additional buildings of the same size, which may be built over a ten-year period. Deere manufactures farm and lawn equipment.