Industry News

China-based Lenovo, the world's third largest maker of personal computers, will invest $84 million to construct a campus in Morrisville, N.C. The three-building, 500,000-sf Innovation Center will be located in the Perimeter Park corporate development. Building One will be a 179,000-sf, five-story research center. Building Two, mirroring the footprint of Building One, will begin construction in March 2006 and reach completion in early 2007. The 143,000-sf, four-story Building Three will begin construction in January 2008 and reach completion in January 2009.

Cisco Systems is developing the 37,000-sf Education and Development Center in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Located in Cisco's Building 11, the employee training center will cost between $1 million and $2 million to construct. Featuring classrooms, video rooms, laboratory space, and lounges, the facility will train approximately 2,000 Cisco employees annually.

Hewlett Packard Co. has expanded its presence in Memphis, Tenn., with the lease of the 789,000-sf Summit Distribution Center II. The facility will accommodate distribution operations for HP's imaging and printing businesses. Operations at the Memphis facility will be filled by Menlo Worldwide, a third-party supplier. The facility is expected to become operational in fall 2005.

Dell will celebrated the ground-breaking of its new 500,000-sf manufacturing plant in southeast Winston-Salem on February 23, 2005. The $115 million facility will be sited in the Alliance Science & Technology Park.

Texas-based Dell Inc. has awarded the site grading contract for its new 500,000-sf computer manufacturing plant in Winston-Salem, N.C., to Blythe Development.  Construction is expected to begin by the end of January 2005.