Industry News

Catholic University of America is building the $26.5 million Edward J. Pryzbyla University Center, a three-story, 102,000-sf, T-shaped structure dubbed the “living room of the university." Housing a bookstore, student center, ballroom, six meeting rooms, campus offices, and a convenience store, the facility is being built by Clark Construction of Bethesda, Md. Construction began in October 2001 and is slated for completion in January 2003. The center will unite the existing three dining rooms on campus into one facility.  

Versicor, a Fremont, Calif.-based drug developer, will relocate its headquarters to Philadelphia where its clinical development operations are based. Versicor develops drugs for the hospital market which fight difficult-to-treat infections.

The $30-million Lockheed Martin Mississippi Space & Technology Center is being developed by a partnership of Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin, NASA, and the State of Mississippi. Located at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center in south Mississippi, the 220,000-sf facility will create an estimated 270 jobs. The project is being funded by $30 million in state and county funds and an additional $30 million from Lockheed Martin.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), an agency created last year to manage airline security, is seeking 400,000 sf of office space by the end of August 2002 for its headquarters. Sites under consideration are in D.C. and Northern Virginia, where there are limited options for such a large space. The relocation could happen by the end of 2002. The TSA currently employs 3,000 personnel, a figure expected to increase with federal budget reallocations.

Illinois-based Newell Rubbermaid's home products division is planning a $26.8-million internal expansion of its 1,200,000-sf Greenville plant. The plant will become the single-source manufacturer and distributor for a new product line launched by Rubbermaid.