Industry News

Pacific Allied Products , the largest plastics manufacturer in Hawaii, will open a 30,000-sf plant in Kapolei’s Campbell Industrial Park in October 2005. The $5-million manufacturing plant and state-of-the-art bottling equipment will enable Pacific Allied Products to triple its current annual production of 60 million bottles to over 200 million bottles. Pacific Allied Products produces bottles for Coca-Cola, Pepsi , and other companies.

The University of Hawaii opened a new $150-facility at the John A. Burns School of Medicine on Sept. 30, 2005. The building consists of eighty percent laboratory space, including a BSL-3 suite, for researchers and programs relocated from the UH-Manoa campus. Those programs include Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases; the Cancer Research Center; Cell and Molecular Biology; Developmental and Reproductive Biology; Neuroscience; and Genomics.

Western Michigan University opened its new 200,000-sf College of Health and Human Services facility on its Kalamazoo campus in September of 2005. Designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration, the building features state-of-the-art laboratories, four computer labs, multimedia and distance learning classrooms, biofeedback and motion analysis labs, faculty offices, and a 100-seat lecture hall.

Mellon Financial Corp. is constructing a 120,000-sf backup data center in Armstrong County, Pa. Sited 30 miles north of Pittsburgh on 40 acres, the facility will improve the financial industry's resiliency for disaster recovery. The data center is expected to be operational in 2007.

Winston Salem University dedicated its new 62,000-sf Computer Science Center in September 2005. The $13-million facility features eight research labs, three computer labs, nine classrooms, and is connected to the high speed network known as Internet 2.