Industry News

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base has received $72 million from the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee for facility development. Infrastructure improvements enabling the transition from the C-141 planes to the larger C-5 will receive $39.15 million. The construction of a 500-seat auditorium, part of a larger expansion of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center at the base, will be funded with $19.67 million. A new $13-million academic facility will house laboratories and classrooms for the Air Force Institute of Technology.

Schering-Plough Corp. is consolidating biopharma research operations in Palo Alto, Calif. Subsidiary Canji Inc. will be relocated to merge with Schering-Plough's DNAX Research Institute to create an integrated company called Schering-Plough Biopharma. The 68,000-sf facility, where DNAX is located, will be fully operational by the third quarter of 2005. Schering-Plough Biopharma will focus primarily on biologics research including monoclonal antibodies and therapeutic proteins.

The $150-million New Songdo National Aquarium will be constructed at the edge of New Songdo City's Central Park in South Korea. Described as the most modern aquarium in the world, the 200,000-sf facility will be designed with state-of-the-art "aquatecture" by Boston-based Chermayeff, Sollogub & Poole (CSP). Project manager International Design for the Environment Associates (IDEA), also of Boston, is a firm of international aquarium experts associated with CSP.

OhioHealth is constructing a 325,000-sf hospital on an 89-acre site in Dublin, Ohio. The $130-million full-service facility is the first hospital in Dublin and is slated for occupancy in October 2007. The 94-bed hospital will accommodate an emergency department, intensive care rooms, labor and delivery, and inpatient/outpatient surgery services.

Wright Medical Technology is planning to relocate from Arlington to a 285,000-sf building in Shelby County, TN, that formerly housed the headquarters of Concord EFS. The new facility will accommodate Wright's corporate headquarters, R&D, and administration. The orthopedic medical device maker is also proposing to construct a 150,000-sf manufacturing and distribution facility at the site.