Industry News

Avalon Pharmaceuticals, a genomics-based research company, has relocated its headquarters to a 55,000-sf facility in Germantown, Md., featuring expanded research and development capabilities. The headquarters, sited in the Seneca Meadows Corporate Center, should be operational in the first quarter of 2003.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Program is planning to consolidate operations with the construction of a new 65,000-sf headquarters on North Carolina State University's Centennial Campus. The $13.5-million facility will include an outdoor learning laboratory and is expected to begin construction in the fourth quarter of 2002.

Applied Biosystems Group of Foster City, Calif., began construction in January on its R&D, office, and manufacturing project sited on 80 acres in Pleasanton. Totalling just under 1,000,000-sf, the planned seven-building complex will be developed on an as-needed basis. Applied Biosystems will invest $80-million this fiscal year in the first two buildings. The first, a two-story, 90,000-sf facility slated for completion in the spring, will be followed by a three-story, 140,000-sf building to reach completion in fall 2003.

Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI), the research arm of Oakland's Children's Hospital, has opened the Nutrition Genomics Center. The research center was funded by an $8-million gift to renovate and equip 14,000 sf of office space.  

The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University is in the process of raising $80 million for capital projects. A gift of $500,000 has been contributed by Cisco Systems to create Fuqua's Center for Innovation and Educational Technologies.