Industry News

The Charles E. Bennett Federal Building in Jacksonville is undergoing a $24-million modernization. Housing the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Labor and Housing, and Urban Development offices, the 11-story, 298,000-sf facility is slated for completion by July 2004. The Jacksonville office of Skanska USA Building is general contractor for the project.

Memorial Hermann City Hospital in Houston opened the 18,000-sf Technical Education Center on March 28. The facility centralizes training programs that were previously sited at other hospital system locations. Housing three classrooms accommodating 50 students each, laboratories for nursing, surgical technology and radiology, and faculty offices, the center provides a simulated hospital setting for hands-on training. The surgical lab contains two mock operating rooms with surgical beds, scrub sink, and overhead lights.

Medical Center of Arlington opened the first phase of its $70-million expansion project on March 29, 2003. Part of a three-year development plan begun in January 2002, the expansion includes a new main entrance and a three-story Women's Center and birthing services tower. The center features a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and all-private birthing rooms. The tower expansion project, based on a platform that supports long-term addition of extended women's services, will affect 175,000 sf and add 69 new private rooms.

Baylor Medical Center of Plano officially broke ground on its new $135-million hospital on March 31, 2003, although work on the facility actually began earlier in the year. Slated to open in mid-to-late 2004, the facility will house 96 inpatient beds, 32 outpatient beds, eight operating rooms, an urgent care center, and a chest pain clinic.

Janssen Pharmaceuticals has selected a subsidiary of Pasadena-based Jacobs Engineering Group to provide engineering services for a new active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) manufacturing plant at Janssen's existing Little Island site in Ireland. The facility will expand manufacturing operations for existing products and will produce one new aseptic API product. Janssen, based in Titusville, N.J., is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.