Industry News

Enterprise software firm Sybase Inc. opened its new 4,000-sf SyberKids Center in March. Managed by the Children’s Creative Learning Center, the on-site child-care facility in Sybase’s new Dublin headquarters has kitchen and bathroom facilities and separate infant, toddler, and preschool areas. Hot meals are provided daily. The center can accommodate 52 children.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. has acquired East Point’s South Fulton Medical Center and plans to spend $30-million on capital improvement projects and staffing for the 369-bed hospital. Renovation will occur on every floor, including a new $5- to $10-million emergency department to be built in the next year. Development of a new cardiovascular center is under way, as well as renovation of the women’s services department. $2 million will be spent on heating and ventilation system restoration.

Georgia Tech has selected Holder Construction Co. and Hardin Construction Co. of Atlanta to build the new DuPree College of Management to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification standards as established by the U.S. Green Building Council. The 189,000-sf facility is part of Midtown's $180-million Technology Square Complex slated for completion in July of 2003. The cost of sustainable construction adds a minimum of 5 percent to traditional construction costs.

Eli Lilly decided in May to locate its $425-million insulin manufacturing facility at the 124-acre Innovation@ Prince William business park in northern Virginia. The Innovation is focused on attracting biotechnology, bioinformatics, and forensic bioscience companies. The Eli Lily project, which will formulate, fill and package all forms of Humalog and Humulin insulin, is the company's first U.S. manufacturing plant outside Indiana. The plant will bring over 700 high-tech jobs to the region when it is fully operational in 2007. 

Public-broadcasting station WGBH-TV is expected to close in early May on Brighton Landing’s 181,000-sf west building. Acquisition of the seven-story facility will allow the 50-year-old station to expand its radio, television, interactive and educational activities. WGBH will occupy the second floor and floors four through seven. As the facility is still in shell condition, phased move-in will take two to five years. An additional four- or five-story facility will be constructed across the street. A third-floor walkway may connect the buildings.