Industry News

Bayer Diagnostics, a division of Bayer Corp., has vacated seven East Bay locations to consolidate operations in a recently completed 75,000-sf Berkeley building. Located in Wareham Development's Aquatic Park where Bayer Diagnostics will continue to occupy space in two adjacent buildings, the five-story facility was built to the division's specifications.

The Smithsonian Institution recently held a topping-out celebration for the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington. The facility's structural concrete frame is now complete. Jones & Jones Architects & Landscape Architects is the design consultant for the museum.

Johnson & Wales University is planning a four-story, 145,000-sf academic center on its new Charlotte campus. Connecting the university's three colleges, the College of Culinary Arts, the College of Business, and the Hospitality College, the facility will be built by RogersDooley, a team of two local contractors.

Atlanta-based Kinetic Biosystems Inc. (KBI) will site its planned $40-million contract biomanufacturing facility in an existing building in north Durham's Teer Technical Park, a five-building campus previously occupied by Mitsubishi Semiconductor America. The facility is expected to open in late 2004 or early 2005. KBI was previously housed in an incubator associated with Georgia Institute of Technology where it focused on developing bioreactor technology.

Singapore-based Flextronics International is engaged in a $20-million, 560,000-sf expansion of its Youngsville, N.C., manufacturing facility. One of two U.S. technology campuses, the facility will house design, engineering, testing, and manufacturing operations for optical communications products. The project will enable Flextronics to add approximately 1,500 additional jobs.