Industry News

Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu has completed three construction projects to accommodate the arrival of eight C-17 cargo planes in 2006. Locating the high-technology planes outside the Mainland U.S. enables troops to be transported to anywhere in the Pacific Rim within 24 hours. The projects consist of a $12.6-million squadron operations facility; a $9.3-million consolidated maintenance complex; and a $6.9-million flight simulator.

Brown University has received $11 million in funding from a renewal of the National Institutes of Health's Center of Biomedical Research Excellence Grant. In addition to funding research projects, the grant will create a bioinformatics core facility for conducting database analysis. A genomics core facility and a transgenic core facility for creating genetically altered mice, created by the previous NIH grant, will also be supported by the funding.

China-based Lenovo, the world's third largest maker of personal computers, will invest $84 million to construct a campus in Morrisville, N.C. The three-building, 500,000-sf Innovation Center will be located in the Perimeter Park corporate development. Building One will be a 179,000-sf, five-story research center. Building Two, mirroring the footprint of Building One, will begin construction in March 2006 and reach completion in early 2007. The 143,000-sf, four-story Building Three will begin construction in January 2008 and reach completion in January 2009.

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.