Industry News

USAA's Western Operations Center has broken ground in Phoenix. Two three-story buildings with 116,097 sf each will house 550 employees when construction is completed in 2001. A second phase of construction will commence in 2001. In 2002, 700-750 more employees will be added.

General Services Administration (GSA) is planning a new $35 million, 215,000-sf facility in Washington for the Office of Student Financial Assistance, a Department of Education division. Groundbreaking is scheduled for May 2000, with occupancy anticipated by October 2001. Greenbaum & Rose of Washington is the developer for the project. The general contractor is  Centex Construction of Fairfax, Va.

Discovery Communications has plans to house 2,000 employees at a $150 million, 500,000-sf global headquarters to be built on four acres in Silver Spring. Gensler is the strategic planning/interior design architect for the project. The Smith Cos. will design the base building. The general contractor is Clark Construction.

Tivoli Systems Inc. plans to consolidate its 2,000 employees currently located in 10 Austin offices at a new 90-acre corporate campus. Tivoli has awarded the contract for the project's master plan to the Houston office of Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum (HOK). At build-out, the campus will feature more than one million sf of office space.

Fort Sam Houston's historic Brooke Army Medical Center and the Beach pavilion Complex will be redeveloped by the U.S. Army working in partnership with the Pennsylvania firm Roy F. Weston Inc. as prime contractor. Local firms involved in the project are Orion Partners, Cross & Company and Ford, Powell & Carson.