Industry News

Nextel Communications Inc. is retrofitting a 33,359-sf office building at Creekside Business Park in Danville to serve as a data switching center. The $10 million renovation will include installation of extra power supplies, a special system for climate control, back-up generators, and fiber-optic connections. Nextel hopes to have the site operational by summer 2000.

MCI Worldcom Inc. has broken ground on a new $8 million regional Internet network in Newark, Calif. The 216,672-sf, two-building project will be built in two phases by the developer, Buffalo Properties Inc. of Dallas, Texas.

Qwest Communications International Inc. has plans to develop 28 new CyberCenters over the next three years, including one in Austin and one in Dallas. IBM Global Services Inc. will build and supply operational support, as well as become the anchor tenant, at the centers it builds.

City of San Jose/San Jose State University Joint Library site preparations have begun for a 475,000-sf, eight-story structure scheduled to break ground in July 2000.Completion is anticipated by 2003.The library will be jointly owned and managed by the city and the university. Project costs are estimated at $176.3 million, with the San Jose Redevelopment Agency contributing $75.3 million, and the university contributing the remaining amount.

San Jose State University's Duncan Hall, which houses the chemistry department, will be enhanced with new state-of-the-art labs for instruction and research thanks to a $500,000 grant to the chemistry department from the Los Angeles-based W.M. Keck Foundation. The new facility in Duncan Hall will be called the W.M. Keck Core Facility for Structure and Surface Analysis.