Industry News

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis opened the first phase of the Hamilton Eye Institute in early May 2004. The project includes ten research laboratories and a technologically advanced administrative suite equipped to provide telemedicine service. The facility will encompass 60,000-sf when it reaches completion in 2005. The final construction phase will create clinical facilities on the second, third, and fourth floors.

A new diagnostic biotech facility will be constructed on 100 acres south of the Texas Medical Center. The $80-million facility will be funded by $25 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund, $25 million each from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Texas Health Science Center, and $5 million from the University of Texas System.

Oxford Automotive has completed an $18.7-million manufacturing and distribution facility in the Jefferson Metropolitan Park in Birmingham. The 400,000-sf facility was designed by DesignForm and constructed by Doster Construction Co., both of Birmingham. The plant will produce assemblies and underbody stampings for the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance.

Jewish Hospital Healthcare Services will break ground on $35.5-million outpatient care center in Hillview, Ky. in summer 2004. Designed by Meta Associates and Arrasmith, Judd, Rapp, Chovan Inc., the facility is expected to receive LEED™ certification for sustainable design. Housing four operating rooms/endoscopy suites, 16 pre-op/recovery beds, CT scanner, diagnostic imaging, mammography, MRI, bone densitometry, 24-hour emergency services, four observation rooms, and 14 private-primary care exam rooms, the facility is slated to open in February 2006.

North Carolina Central University will receive $200,000 in federal funds toward the construction of the Biomanufacturing Research Institute and Training Enterprise facility on the university’s Durham campus.