Industry News

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center is planning to construct a $22-million regional biocontainment laboratory on its Memphis campus. Focusing on bio-defense and infectious disease research, the facility will be funded with bonds and $14.8 million from the National Institutes of Health . Additionally, a $43-million pharmacy facility will also be constructed at the UT Health Science Center.  

Honda Motor Co . is planning to construct a 250,000-sf automatic transmission assembly plant in Tallapoosa, Ga. Production will begin at the $100-million facility in fall 2006. The plant will produce 300,000 transmissions annually for the Odyssey minivans and Pilot SUVs manufactured at Honda's Lincoln, Ala., facility.

FedEx Ground will construct a 247,000-sf distribution center on 75 acres in Kennesaw, Ga. Tripling the size of the current FedEx Ground terminal in Marietta (which it will replace), the facility will feature high technology materials handling systems and will be capable of processing 15,000 packages per hour when it opens in summer of 2006. In 2010 the facility is expected to be converted to a 322,000-sf hub able to sort 30,000 packages per hour.  

Kaiser Permanente is planning to construct a $350-million hospital in Oakland, Calif., on the two-acre site of a current Kaiser medical office and clinic facility. The 346-bed hospital is part of a $500-million, three-phase plan that entails the reconfiguration of Kaiser's existing Oakland hospital into outpatient and office space, the demolition of the medical office building at the new hospital site, and the construction of a replacement medical office facility in Oakland. The new hospital is expected to reach completion by January of 2013.

Needham-based Avant Immunotherapeutics opened its 11,800-sf pilot manufacturing plant in Fall River, Mass., in early November 2004. Accommodating the creation of vaccines in various stages of clinical trials, the facility is sited in MassDevelopment's South Coast Research and Technology Park.