Industry News

Northrop Grumman Corp. broke ground on the 185,000-sf Commonwealth Enterprise Solutions Center in Chesterfield County, Va., in May of 2006. Housing 185,000 sf of offices, the building is sited on 28 acres. It will serve as Virginia's primary data center and will house the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, as well as containing a technology lab, a security operations center, a video broadcast studio, a training room, and a fitness center. Completion is slated for fall of 2007.

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) opened the $970-million National Security Sciences building in May of 2006.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham is initiating the second phase of its Richard C. and Annette N. Shelby Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building project. Phase two will cost approximately $120 million and will add 30,000-sf of research space, including the $7.89-million fit-out of the sixth and eleventh floors to house immunological and neuroscientific research, including the expansion of the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute. The contractor is Argo Construction.

Albany Molecular has initiated the first major expansion of its Hyderabad Research Centre in India with the construction of a 50,000-sf R&D center. Slated for completion in late 2007, the facility will house early stage contract drug discovery research, including medicinal chemistry and custom chemical synthesis. The project will include a scale-up production laboratory for active pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediates.

Site preparation is under way by Sundt Construction for SkySong, Arizona State University (ASU) Scottsdale's 34-acre Innovation Center. Higgins Development Parters of Chicago along with Peoria, Ill.-based The Plaza Cos. are developing the $300-million high-tech research park. The two-building first phase will provide over 300,000 sf for office and retail space, of which ASU will occupy 80,000 sf. The scheduled opening of phase one is early 2007.