Industry News

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation broke ground in October 2005 on a new division headquarters facility in Houston. The project consists of an eight-story, 250,000-sf office plus 50,000-sf in two smaller buildings. The high technology facility will be constructed to meet all post-Sept. 11 federal building criteria by Mississippi-based W.G. Yates and Sons. The construction cost is approximately $54.1 million. Upon completion in two years, the headquarters will house 720 employees.

Plymouth, Mich.-based Atlas Tube, the world's largest manufacturer of hollow structural sections, is initiating construction on a $55-million manufacturing plant in Blytheville, Ark. The 450,000-sf facility will begin production in the third quarter of 2006 with full operations under way by year-end. Located near Nucor Steel Arkansas, the plant is Atlas' fifth manufacturing plant and will bring total annual production capacity up to 1.5 million tons per year.

Eckerd College has selected Cannon Design as the architect for a new wellness center and recreational complex on the college's Boca Raton, Fla., campus. Planned as a recreation and fitness village composed of smaller buildings, the 30,000-sf facility will feature three two-story pods connected on both levels by walkways, terraces, and decks. The student life complex will include expanded facilities for dining, retail, and recreation spaces.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has completed construction of the new $165-million Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory. Located on the CDC's Edward R. Roybal campus in Atlanta, the 12-story building plus attached five-story structure includes BSL-4, BSL-3, and BSL-2 facilities, offices, molecular biology suites, analytical equipment laboratories, a central glass washing facility, and a central utility plant. Housing over 450 researchers, the 400,000-sf laboratory is slated to open in fall 2005. Construction began in October 2001.

The Tulane National Primate Research Center has received two grants of $4 million each from the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health for new construction and expansion of its current breeding facility in Covington, La. The first grant will fund construction of a facility that will house monkeys assigned to a variety of research studies and nursery facilities for infant monkeys.