Boston Internet City, a 450,000-sf telecom hotel under construction in Brighton, will be the largest such facility in New England. Carter & Burgess Inc. of Boston, known for its retrofits of older buildings for telecom purposes, is converting a former two-story warehouse above a Macy's store to a three-story facility. The developer is Cabot, Cabot & Forbes of New England Inc.
Telecom Real Estate Services (TRES) of Los Angeles will invest $30 million to convert a 368,000-sf former A&P distribution center to a telecommunications switching station, or telecom hotel. According to TRES, the single-story structure has several advantages: generators can be placed outside the building, freeing roof space for cooling and other uses; and fiber-optic cables can be run through the ground to users rather than through the riser space encountered in multi-story buildings.
Sprint's new 4,000,000-sf, 22-building corporate campus for 14,400 Sprint employees is under construction. It is the largest office building in the U.S., according to the designer, The Hillier Group Architects, of Princeton, N.J. Completion is anticipated in 2002.
MCI Worldcom has received approval from the Newark City Council for a new regional Internet network information center. The fast-track project includes two 108,336-sf buildings for a total of 216,672 sf to be built by Buffalo Properties Inc. on 13.5 acres at Stevenson Point Tech Park. The new facility will support MCI Worldcom's fiber-optic data network.
Synopsys Inc., based in Mountain View, Calif., opened a "plug-in" facility in Pleasanton in November 1999. Employees minimize time spent commuting in the East Bay by bringing their laptop computers to the 11,000-sf telecommuting office, which is equipped with desks, phones, fax and copy machines, a break room and vending machines.
Both Cisco Systems Inc. and Cadence Design Systems Inc. have also opened telecommute offices in the area.
The University of Maryland at College Park, in conjunction with Lucent Technologies of Murray Hill, NJ, has plans for a "digital residence hall" for students in the Hinman Campus Entrepreneurship Opportunities Program. Lucent will design and equip the facility with multimedia messaging, videoconferenceing, and high-speed wireless and data networking.
GTE Internetworking plans to double the size of its new corporate complex being developed by National Development of New England at the MetroNorth Corporate Center in Woburn. July 2000 is the scheduled opening of the company's 235,000-sf facility there. A 250,000-sf second building is planned, and now a possible third building is under consideration.
GTE Internetworking is based in Burlington and provides Internet access and runs Websites for major corporations.
Clear Channel Communications Inc. is building a 50,000-sf headquarters in Lincoln Heights. G.W. Mitchell & Sons is handling construction for the facility, with completion scheduled for spring 2000.
Tellabs Inc. is considering expansion of its facilities in Massachusetts. The Lisle, Ill.-based telephone equipment company is headquartered in Burlington, but has received a proposal from Boston properties Inc. to build two buildings in Andover totaling over 200,000 sf.
Lucent Technologies' Titania division has completed construction of a new 65,000-sf building at the Carlsbad Research Center to house labs, a cleanroom, offices and support space for Lucent Power Systems. The designer of the project is Smith Consulting Architects of San Diego, Calif.
Ericsson Inc. may expand operations at its 118-acre campus in Research Triangle Park following the liquidation of its real estate holdings around the world. The RTP site houses the company's mobile phone R&D unit.
