Industry News

Premium Distributors, a D.C. beer distributor, has built a new 154,000-sf headquarters in Washington. The one-story office building contains a partially submerged section where approximately one million cases of beer are refrigerated.  The $11-million building is the first development in the Fort Lincoln New Town section and features an indoor loading bay for delivery trucks. Architect Herring & Trowbridge designed the facility, which consolidates three former locations.

The Georgia Aquarium has selected Heery International Inc. of Atlanta as construction manager for building the world's largest aquarium. Heery's role will be the oversight and management of all project stages. Slated to open in 2005, the $200-million, 250,000-sf aquarium will feature a 5 million-gallon exotic aquatic animal tank. Brasfield & Gorrie LLC of Kennesaw will manage day-to-day construction operations.

Glendale-based media/entertainment company DreamWorks SKG is planning to lease over 100,000 sf in Redwood City's Pacific Shores for PDI, the company's Palo Alto-based computer animation division. PDI currently occupies 65,000 sf in three buildings in Palo Alto and employs 300 people. The size of the Pacific Shores location would allow PDI to more than double its workforce. The company has been seeking a Bay Area expansion fit for two years.

Kinetic Concepts Inc. (KCI) has relocated its national call center, credit, billing, accounts receivable and third-party payer operations to the 58,000-sf KCI Advantage Center at the University Park Tech Center IV in San Antonio. The health care products maker previously housed these operations in 28,000 sf adjacent to the KCI Tower across the street. KCI's 290 employees were relocated in early March to the new facility, which was dedicated on April 5.

Catellus Development Corp. of San Francisco has preliminary approval from the Austin City Council to redevelop the Robert Mueller Municipal Airport. The 709-acre site will house a massive mixed-use project including office, retail, residential, and civic buildings. The 20-year project is estimated to cost between $80 million and $146 million. Ground may be broken on the first phase of construction early next year.