Industry News

The $17.9-million Regional Transportation Center is under construction in San Diego. Located on a 1.4-acre site in City Heights, the project will feature a 60,000-sf facility that will promote awareness of alternative fuel vehicles. The building is being funded via a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and by the San Diego Environmental Foundation, Ford Motor Co., Pearson Ford, California Air Resources Board, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the city of San Diego.

Richmond, Va.-based Universal Leaf Tobacco Co. is investing $11-million to renovate a 350,000-sf office and warehouse facility in Oxford. Universal Leaf recently completed the construction of a $100-million processing plant in Nash County and the $28-million upgrade of its plant in Danville, Va.

The University of California, San Francisco has completed the 434,000-sf Genentech Hall on its Mission Bay Campus. Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership served as design consultant to SmithGroup for the facility, which is the first to be constructed on the new 43-acre campus in San Francisco. Genentech Hall encompasses chemistry, biochemistry, cell biology and computational laboratories, laboratory support, offices, conference facilities, an auditorium, and a cafeteria.

Icon Clinical Research will consolidate operations totalling 25,000 sf from offices in San Bruno and Mountain View with a move in early 2003 to a five-story R&D and office building in Redwood City. Icon provides biometric and clinical research services for the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is planning to begin construction on its new 208,000-sf offices in Washington's Suitland Federal Center. Housing millions of dollars of technical equipment, the facility will feature a 140,000-sf "green" roof that functions as a self-sustained bed for local plant life.