Industry News

The University of South Florida St. Petersburg is planning to construct a $18.3-million student housing project. Slated for completion in fall 2006, the seven-story structure will accommodate 354 beds distributed in 79 four-bedroom apartments, seven two-bedroom units, and a one-bedroom apartment.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore has issued a request for proposals to develop the second building on its bioscience campus in downtown Baltimore. Construction on the 110,000-sf facility is expected to begin in spring 2005. Construction of a 600-car parking garage at the site is slated to begin by the end of October 2004. Buildout on the first 120,000-sf building on the bioscience campus, housing office and lab space, will be completed by summer 2005. 

The University of San Francisco will initiate a $18.5-million expansion and renovation of its School of Business and Management's McLaren Center. Designed by SMWM, the facility will feature state-of-the-art technology including videoconferencing and specialized classrooms for case studies. A 26,000-sf addition connected to the existing building will be constructed, doubling the current facility's footprint.

Leading research institution SRI International is planning to transform its 1.3 million-sf Menlo Park, Calif., campus with a project estimated to cost "several hundred million dollars." The rebuilding initiative will include renovation of seventy percent of SRI's research facilities in the next ten years, with construction expected to begin in 2006.

Toyota Motor Corp . will double the size of its Huntsville, Ala., engine plant with a $250-million expansion. Bringing the facility to a total worth of $490 million, the project will enable the plant to produce approximately 400,000 engines annually upon completion. The expansion of the plant, which opened in mid-2003, is the second in fourteen months. The first $20-million expansion was initiated in July 2003.