Industry News

The General Services Administration has awarded Highwoods Properties of Raleigh, N.C., the $26.6-million contract to develop a 112,000-sf office for the FBI in Tampa, Fla. The cost of the project includes a seven-acre land purchase. Construction is slated to begin in mid-2004.

Chip equipment maker Credence Systems Corp. has relocated its headquarters from Fremont to Milpitas, Calif. The new facility will increase space for R&D operations as well as housing manufacturing, engineering, marketing, sales, and administrative functions. Credence will consolidate its 300 Northern California employees at the new headquarters.

The University of South Alabama has completed the first phase of its $9.3-million Research and Technology Park in Mobile, Ala. The project entailed construction of a 75,000-sf office facility for software and technology company Mentor Graphics Corp. The project team includes KPS Group of Birmingham as architect and Doster Construction Co. as construction manager.

Palo Alto-based Hewlett Packard will invest $1 billion in an existing Singapore factory over the next five years to expand and upgrade its facilities, supporting a new manufacturing line producing top-end servers and printers including the “superdome server”.

Sabre Technical Services, creator of a chloride dioxide gas technology for the elimination of anthrax and other bio-organisms, will establish Bio-One in the 64,000-sf Boca Raton facility that previously housed the National Enquirer. The facility was contaminated by anthrax spores in fall of 2001. Bio-One will decontaminate the space prior to occupancy. Bio-One is a joint venture of Sabre Technical Services and former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani.