Industry News

The Department of Homeland Security announced the finalists for the possible location of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in August of 2008. The five locations reported as finalists are:

Rice University is constructing the Collaborative Research Center in Houston. The 477,000-gsf project broke ground in December of 2006 and is slated for completion in early spring of 2009. Sited on 2.9 acres, the ten-story facility will accommodate bioscience and biotechnology research. The estimated construction cost of the LEED-certified facility is between $200 million and $300 million.

West Virginia University dedicated the $43 million Biomedical Research Center and the $17.5 million Health Sciences Learning Center in Morgantown in August of 2008. The four-story, 120,000-sf Biomedical Research Center houses the Multiple Sclerosis and Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Center, the Sensory Neurosciences Research Center, and other biomedical research facilities.

Children's Hospital of Orange County has selected Jacobs Engineering Group as construction manager for its new 424,300-sf patient tower in Orange, Calif. The tower will be constructed in phases through 2020 for a total future bed count of 380. The project will include renovation of the existing hospital campus and central plant.

Pfizer will open the 105,000-sf Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center (BBC) in San Francisco’s Mission Bay development in 2010. Located adjacent to the University of California, San Francisco's Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) research facility, the leased five-story building will enable Pfizer to pursue collaborative research with academic and industry partners. The project developer is Alexandria Real Estate Equities. Pfizer may lease an additional 50,000-sf in another wing of the building.