Industry News

MedImmune, based in Gaithersburg, Md., plans to select a site in Montgomery County for its new $60 million, 210,000-sf biotechnology headquarters. Phase I of the project includes construction of two buildings in a campus-style setting. The company will relocate its headquarters to the new building when construction is completed in 2002.

Life Technologies, recently purchased by Invitrogen of San Diego, will see 400 employees relocated from Rockville's Shadey Grove Life Sciences Center to a new three-building campus on 15 to 20 acres in Frederick, where Invitrogen will centralize its U.S. distribution services. The site provides approximately 175,000 sf of manufacturing, distribution, and some R&D space, and a 50,000-sf warehouse that will be renovated. Plans may include construction of a new facility for expanded R&D services at the site.

Millennium Pharmaceuticals has opened a 200,000-sf addition to its headquarters in University Park, a 2.3 million-sf park in Cambridge. Over the next few years, the biotech company plas to construct an additional 212,000 sf, which will bring Millennium's presence to a total of 673,000 sf at the park.

Associates of Cape Cod Inc. (ACCI) is building a new 79,000-sf FDA-validated production facility for diagnostics in the Falmouth Technology Park. ACCI manufactures endotoxin diagnostic assays extracted from the blood of horseshoe crabs. Laboratories will feature state-of-the-art technology. The cleanroom production areas include Class 100 formulation and filling suites, accessible through airlocks. The production process and facilities will be fully validated in accordance with FDA cGMP requirements.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has solicited proposals for a 630,000-sf headquarters site in order to consolidate its Washington, D.C., operations now housed in two locations. Boston Properties, a Boston-based real estate investment trust, was expected to submit a proposal by mid-December 2000 to use one of its properties, currently a parking lot within walking distance of the new Washington Convention Center, as the location for the project.