Industry News

Star Media Network will consolidate three offices in late fall 2000 when the company occupies its new 136,000-sf headquarters in New York City. Site selection, interior design, and construction administration services have been provided by The Hillier Group's New York office. The new facility is a triangular-shaped, two-story loft space.

Infomart LLC of Dallas, in partnership with Nexcomm Capital Partners of Southport, Conn., will transform a 400,000-sf former cold-storage warehouse in Watertown into a telecom hotel for high-tech firms. The building provides a number of features required for telecommunications equipment: heavy floor capacity, high ceilings, proximity to fiber-optic networks. Renovations totaling $20 million are scheduled to start in August 2000 and be completed by late fall 2000.

Nortel Networks broke ground in September on its new $200 million Silicon Valley campus. The new facility will consolidate employees currently housed at more than a dozen Bay Area locations. Completion is anticipated in late 2001 or early 2002.

Oakland Telecommunications Access Center is a $30 million, 113,500-sf telecom facility under development at Oakland's Jack London Square. The state-of-the-art, four-story structure is being constructed by Mortenson Development Co. and will be the first of its kind built to telecom standard levels. Completion is scheduled for May 2001.

Charles Schwab & Company has awarded a $72 million contract to Carlson of Phoenix to design and implement a 250,000-sf data center in Chandler. The new Chandler Data Center will supplement the operations of Schwab's principal facility in Phoenix. Carlson will also function as construction manager and general contractor for the project. Using fast track "design-implement" methods, Carlson will spend seven months building the center, with completion scheduled for October 2000.