High Tech

Public Square Tech Center--a one million-sf high tech redevelopment project under way in Cleveland at the site of the historic May Company Building--will become a cutting-edge mixed-use center that will include technology uses, office, retail, and parking. The building offers over 100 watts per sf of power, multiple fiber providers, heavy floor loads (up to 170 pounds per sf), and high ceilings. Potential tenants include web hosting firms, switch facilities, and data centers.

GiantLoop Network has hired Peabody Construction of Boston to renovate an 89,000 sf facility in Waltham, MA. Technological upgrades are included in the project cost of $2 million.

Nordic Technology Park, a 43,500-sm building formerly used as a Soviet military communications factory, is being converted to an office building for the Baltic high-tech industry. American architects Arrowstreet of Somerville, Mass., working with Latvian architects Valenius un Stepe, are completely renovating the structure.

Sun Microsystems intends to purchase 11.8 acres in Dublin, Calif., for development of a new campus. The proposal submitted to Alameda county includes a bid of $43 million for the county's remaining surplus land, providing up to 750,000 sf of office space for as many as 3,000 employees.

Union Station Telecom Center is under construction at the site of a former warehouse in northeast Washington. Construction began in summer 2000 to restore the six-story, 440,000-sf structure in preparation for tenant build-out.

Cohu Inc. plans to relocate its plant and headquarters from Kearny Mesa, Calif., to a 20-acre site in Poway in 2001. The new $21.3 million, 338,00-sf facility will consolidate the operations of Cohu's manufacturing subsidiary, Delta Design, under one roof, and also accommodate administrative offices, and approximately 900 employees. Cohu manufactures test equipment used in the manufacture of semiconductors.

Cisco Systems, based in San Jose, Calif., recently began construction at its nine-building campus on three 200,000-sf buildings: buildings 10, 11, and 12. These buildings were designed by O'Brien/Atkins Associates of Durham, N.C. Bovis/Lend Lease, based in Raleigh, N.C., is the general contractor. Completion is planned for 2001, when construction will begin on three more buildings--buildings 13, 14, and 15--which will total 500,000 sf. Cisco currently houses 3,000 employees at the site.

The San Diego Network Operations Center, a facility that will house the Navy Marine Corps’ Intranet project, will be built in the Rear Adm. Grace Hopper Building at San Diego’s North Island Naval Air Station. Plano, Texas-based Electronic Data Services Corp. (EDS) is heading the multi-contractor project. EDS will locate its project headquarters, technology integration lab, and the Western help desk for the huge network in a 140,000-sf facility in San Diego.

Applied Materials, based in Santa Clara, Calif., has plans for a 300,000-sf manufacturing center at its Austin campus. The new structure will produce 300mm wafer fabrication equipment. There are currently only one or two plants in the world that produce equipment to manufacture the larger diameter 300mm wafers. The company is requesting qualifications from design and construction firms.

Storage Networks Inc. has begun moving its 600 employees into a new 130,000-sf world headquarters in Waltham that will house a global operations center for the Internet storage company. In addition, the facility provides office space, a test lab, and an executive briefing center to accommodate potential customers, investors, analysts, and the media. The structure, originally built in the 1950s, was completely gutted and renovated, including all new infrastructure. The architectural firm of Margulies & Associates of Boston designed the facility.

Zygo TeraOptix, based in Holliston, Mass., has a $9-million renovation and expansion under way in Westborough at a newly purchased 87,000-sf facility. A 33,500-sf expansion will create a new floor within one section of the structure that has 50'-high ceilings, bringing the total space available to 120,000 sf. Employees began occupying approximately 30,000 sf of the building in December 2000. Manufacturing operations for the optical networking company will be shifted from Holliston to the new facility when construction is completed.

The Yamacraw Design Center,  the facility that will house Georgia’s initiative for technology economic development in broadband telecommunications, is being developed in Midtown Atlanta. The building will include institutional and commercial design technology demonstration studios; prototypes of labs for applied R&D; and incubator and industry representative office space for member companies. Lord, Aeck & Sargent of Atlanta is the architect for the project.

Cirrus Logic Inc. has plans to consolidate employees from its administrative, engineering, and sales functions at a new 190,000-sf corporate headquarters in Building V at the Terrace Business Park in Austin. The new facility has been approved for construction and will accommodate offices for approximately 500 employees when it opens in summer 2002. Manufacturing and testing operations will continue at the company’s 60,000-sf plant in Southeast Austin. The company will also maintain its storage applications operations in Fremont, Calif.

ONI Systems, a high-tech company based in San Jose, Calif., will locate its Lightwave Design Center at Nottingham Hall, a 105,000-sf building under construction in the Imperial Office Park near Research Triangle Park.  ONI plans to  employ 150 people doing product development in 54,000 sf—the top two floors—of the facility, which will also serve as a customer support center for ONI’s East Coast clients. Clancy & Theys is the general contractor for the building, which is scheduled for completion in spring 2001.

Ultra Clean Technology (UCT) opened a new $4-million plant in late October 2000 in North Austin’s Business Center @ TechRidge complex. UCT supplies gas and liquid delivery technology to the semiconductor process equipment industry. The new 11,000-sf facility houses a 3,000-sf cleanroom and a 4,000-sf warehouse. The North Austin facility is UCT’s first expansion outside Menlo Park, Calif., where the company is based.