Industry News

Onramp Access, an Austin-based Internet service provider, relocated its headquarters on March 1, 2003 from 9,000 sf of office and 2,000 sf of data center space in downtown Austin to a leased facility in East Austin with 12,000 sf of office space and a data center totalling 9,000 sf. 

North Carolina State University has selected Boney Architects of Wilmington, with an office in Raleigh, as project architect for the planned $9-million Friday Institute. The 32,000-sf educational research and teacher training center will be located next to the Centennial Campus Middle School in Raleigh. Groundbreaking is slated for early 2004.

Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente is expanding in Sonoma County, Calif. The HMO leased and renovated approximately 30,000-sf in Rohnert Park to house offices for primary-care physicians and a pharmacy; the facility opened Feb. 20, 2003. In Santa Rosa, Kaiser has constructed a 60,000-sf medical office building on an 18-acre site north of Kaiser's existing campus. The facility will house pediatric and ophthalmology services and is expected to open by year-end.

The former Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Research Triangle Park, known as "The Fortress", is being redesigned as the Triangle Life Science Center. The facility, sited on 16 acres, was purchased by Triangle Life Science for $13.15-million in May 2002. Project architect O'Brien/Atkins Associates plans to adapt the facility to accommodate eight to ten tenants; occupancy is expected for late 2003 or early 2004.

Kennedy Health System opened its new 26,000-sf Kennedy Memorial Hospital emergency department in Turnersville, N.J., on February 27, 2003. Housed in a new three-story, 90,000-sf facility, the $23-million emergency department nearly quadruples the size of the previous department. Featuring 29 treatment rooms, the facility has two centers of patient treatment: one for trauma and acute care and another for less acute conditions.