Industry News

Hughes Network Systems, a unit of California-based Hughes Electronics, has just opened its  new $20 million, 43,000-sf operations center for the company’s satellite-based broadband network, DirecWay. The new facility, which is a consolidation of eight operations, will be the control center for the $.14 billion DirecWay service—a two-way connection that enables users to both receive and send data over the same wireless receiver.

RF Micro Devices Inc., based in Greensboro, plans to upgrade its clean-room manufacturing space. The two-year, $58-million project will also provide new semiconductor manufacturing equipment for its partner, Agere Systems Inc., in Orlando, Fl., to produce high-performance chips for communications products. RF Micro will also build a facility in Beijing to test and finish chips for the Chinese market.

DataCentersNow  has completed CyberFortress II, a 109,800-sf vault-like data center in Manassas. For companies requiring highly secure facilities to house their telecom and Web sites, CyberFortress II offers bullet-proof glass doors, thick walls, and independent power generation, as well as raised floors and large fiber-optic pipes.

Pirelli Tire North America is developing a tire manufacturing facility in Rome, Ga. Site work has begun on the $140 million, 400,000-sf building housing office, research and manufacturing facilities. The plant is scheduled to open in mid-2002 and will provide tires for both new vehicles and the replacement tire market. H&M Co. of Jackson, Tenn., holds the design-build contract.

Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp. is considering the Alliance industrial park in Fort Worth as the home for its stationary-fuel-cells division. The $125 million, 500-employee manufacturing plant would initially consist of office space (35,000 sf) and manufacturing space (180,000 sf), with a possible expansion of the office space to 70,000 sf and the manufacturing space to 430,0000 sf in the next four years. Other potential sites include Orlando, Fla. and Pittsburgh.