Industry News

Verizon has awarded a program management contract to Syska Hennessy Group to design and build a fuel cell facility as the primary electrical power source at their 332,000-sf Garden City call-routing center. Pending permit approvals, Verizon plans to start installation of seven fuel cells manufactured by UTC Fuel Cells, a unit of United Technologies Corp. The system  is expected to be fully operational in 2004 and will operate in parallel with four new natural-gas powered engine generators, totaling more than 4 megawatts of generating capacity.

Rex Hospital of Raleigh has initiated a $20-million remodeling and construction project that will add two new outpatient operating rooms, a new admission and registration entryway, and a new four-level parking deck providing an additional 410 spaces for visitors. The project is slated for completion in two years.

Discovery Laboratories Inc. has leased a 10,000-sf research laboratory facility in Redwood City, Calif. Based in Doylestown, Penn., the biopharmaceutical company plans to use the facility to develop its synthetic aerosol version of human lung surfactants.

The Robert F. Lucey Center for Technology and Training's dedication ceremony was recently celebrated at Dean College in Franklin. Created to provide regional employers with technology training solutions, the Center was designed by Cambridge-based Bruner Cott & Associates. 

Austin's first biotech incubator, Biowalk LLC, plans to lease 17,000 sf of office and lab space. Biowalk's goal is to coordinate bioscience startups with services, infrastructure and funding, as well as generating student interest in science. A March 2002 opening is planned.