Industry News

The U.S. Department of Agriculture broke ground on the second phase of construction at the ARS Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center (PBARC) in August of 2010 in Hilo, Hawaii. Phase 2 will support research on exotic tropical crops, alternative energy sources, and sustainable agriculture with additional offices, screen houses, and head houses.

Phoenix Children’s Hospital is planning to build a new pediatric medical center in Avondale, Ariz. The first phase includes a $33.5 million, 35,800-sf specialty/urgent care center and an outpatient clinic with 25 exam rooms and two treatment rooms. A 35,700-sf medical office building will be built in phase two. A planned third phase of construction will include a 48-bed, 95,800-sf pediatric hospital.

The University of Missouri School of Medicine opened its 9,000-sf Neuroscience Center in August of 2010. The $1.4 million facility was created by renovating existing laboratory space on the seventh floor of the Medical Sciences building in Columbia, Mo. Construction began on the project in September of 2009.

Networking solutions provider Brocade opened its 75,000-sf R&D laboratory and data center in August of 2010 in San Jose, Calif. Five engineering labs and three data centers were consolidated with the new facility, resulting in a 37 percent reduction in energy consumption and eliminating 4,450 tons of CO2 emissions annually. The data center has a calculated Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) metric of 1.3, while comparable data centers usually have a PUE greater than 1.5.

The University of Kansas completed the $7.25 million Bioscience and Technology Business Center in Lawrence in June of 2010. The 20,000-sf business incubator houses offices and wet and dry laboratories for life sciences research and development. Ground was broken on the project in summer of 2009.