Industry News

Cell Genesys, based in Foster City, Calif., plans to develop a 35,000-sf manufacturing facility in Memphis for the production of the GVAX cancer vaccine. Completion is scheduled for the end of 2002.  The company also plans to relocate its headquarters from Foster City to a new 280,000-sf facility in South San Francisco. In addition, a $60-million, 41,000-sf manufacturing plant is under construction in Hayward, Calif.

Rib-X Pharmaceuticals is planning a new 26,400-sf lab and office facility at New Haven’s 300 George Biotech Laboratory complex. Jung/Brannen Associates, based in Boston, has completed architectural design for the structure, which will accommodate research, a computational chemistry lab, facilities for wet-lab chemistry, and administrative offices.

The Los Angeles Regional Crime Laboratory Facility Authority has selected the architectural team of HarleyEllis of Detroit and their Los Angeles affiliate Fields Deveraux Architects Engineers to program the new Los Angeles Regional Forensics Science Crime Laboratory.

Merck & Co. is planning a new 300,000-gsf biotechnology research facility on the campus of Emmanuel College in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood. Designated as Merck Research Laboratories-Boston, the structure will have twelve stories above ground and six below, and will house scientists, support staff, and administrative personnel when it opens in 2004.

The University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey has selected Sordoni Skanska of Parsippany, N.J., to manage construction for a 139,000-gsf expansion of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey’s current cancer facility. The Institute is located on the New Brunswick campus of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Construction on the $46.7-million, five-story project began in February 2002; completion is expected by December 2003. The expansion will add space for research, patient treatment, cancer prevention and education programs.