Industry News

Oil refiner Valero Energy Corp. has contracted SpawGlass Contractors of San Antonio to build its new headquarters on the existing 148-acre Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corp. campus recently acquired by Valero.

Yale University School of Medicine selected Boston-based Jung/Brannen Associates Inc. to design a new 28,400-sf research facility. The lab will occupy half of the second floor of the 300 George Biotech Laboratory Building.

Simeon Properties is planning to redevelop the 86-acre former Zenica site in Richmond, Calif., to build the $100 million Western Research Center, a multi-phase biotech incubator. The first $50-million, 330,000-sf phase will involve demolishing six buildings, moving two existing buildings and building two additional facilities. The second phase will encompass 180,000 sf in two more buildings. A possible third phase, dependent on an entitlement from the City of Richmond and environmental remediation, would open up the remaining 55 acres.

The Northside Independent School District (NISD) has selected PBK Architects Inc. of Houston to design a new high school on 75 acres in the Westover Hills. The $51-million, 350,000-sf school is slated to be ready for the 2005-2006 academic year with construction to begin in spring of 2003. The new campus was approved to relieve overcrowding at local high schools.

The University of California, San Francisco is planning a 150,000-sf neurosurgery, urology and cancer center serving advanced research. The $85-million building, still in a "very preliminary" stage, could be located on the University's Mt. Zion campus in San Francisco. The neurological research building will be accompanied by a $600-million project replacing existing hospitals due to cramped medical research space and inadequate seismic standards. After plans are approved, it could take at least 10 years to open the new hospital facilities.