Industry News

The Medical Center of the Americas is in the design stage in El Paso, Texas. Created by a consortium of academic and industry partners including the University of Texas and Texas Tech, the planned 140-acre biomedical research complex will support commercialization of pharmaceutical therapies. The first phase of the project will include construction of an 80,000-sf facility on 10 acres in central El Paso. A subsequent phase of construction will deliver two additional buildings at the site.

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth is planning to build a $22 million biomanufacturing facility in Fall River, Mass. The building will be the first facility in a proposed 300-acre biotechnology park.

Southeast Missouri State University opened the $100,000 Beef Research Facility in Gordonville in February of 2011. Part of the David M. Barton Agriculture Research Center, the center will act as a living laboratory for meat production science and DNA sequencing for selective breeding. The project was funded in part by a grant from the Department of Agriculture and represents a collaborative partnership with the University of Missouri-Columbia and the University of Missouri Extension. The facility houses animal holding pens adjacent to a research farm.

Reaseheath College completed its $3.2 million animal management center in February of 2011. The building provides animal housing, classrooms, conference rooms, and administration for educational programs in animal care and welfare. The sustainably designed building is BREEAM rated. The facility was built by Whitfield and Brown of Widnes.

Composites Horizons Inc. (CHI) is expanding its manufacturing operations in Covina, Calif. CHI currently occupies two buildings at the site and will renovate a third 41,000-sf facility. The completed project will include a 2,300-sf polyimide cleanroom. Composites Horizons is part of the Aerostructures & Composites division of U.K.-based Hampson Group.