Industry News

Applied Biosystems is relocating its Foster City, Calif., operations to its new campus in Pleasanton, Calif. A 96,400-sf facility will house the company’s genomic assays research business. The shell of a 143,800-sf facility has been constructed, but tenant improvements will not be made until additional space is needed.

ICN Biomedicals, a supplier of research products to life science companies, will occupy 9,165 sf in Livermore, Calif., near the Municipal Airport. The space will house the company’s R&D operations.

The University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute is working with the National Institute of Standards & Technology to develop a planned expansion of the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology called CARB II. The 140,000-sf, $38-million project will host new laboratories, core facilities, and training programs for the biotech work force and will cost $50-million to build. CARB I is an 88,000-sf building sited on six acres at the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center in Rockville, Md.

Rockdale Hospital is planning a $60-million expansion of its Conyers, Ga., facility. The 173,000-sf project is comprised of a new three-story building adding 31 new beds, bringing the hospital’s total bed count to 138. The facility will house enhanced outpatient and inpatient services including mother-baby, medical-surgical, and intensive-care units. Construction is slated to begin in late 2003 and reach completion in 16 to 18 months. The hospital’s emergency department is also undergoing expansion and renovation, with completion expected in fall of 2003.

General Motors contracted Towanda-based Gibraltar Chimney to make emergency repairs to its Oklahoma City, N.Y., plant damaged by a tornado. GM’s four million-sf plant suffered over $60 million in damage when the tornado toppled two 120-ft tall steel stacks and severely damaged a third stack. The plant, damaged on May 8, 2003, was reopened that June.