Corporate

The Oregon Armory in Portland will be renovated to house the Portland Center Stage theater company. With two theaters comprised of 599 and 200 seats, the renovation is slated for completion by November 2005. Designed by GBD Architects of Portland, the conversion project is a “laboratory of sustainability” which meets strict energy and environmental design standards including sustainably harvested woods and water-recycling systems. Landry and Bogan of Mountain View, Calif. are the theater design consultants.

Walt Disney World has selected the Scott Partnership Architecture Inc. to design two YMCA Childcare Centers. Located in Orlando, Fla., the 49,901-sf, $10-million project features playground settings with wood and trees, customized millwork, and a large indoor play space. The first center is currently under construction and is expected to reach completion in July 2004. The second center is in the permitting phase, with construction slated to conclude in fall 2004.

The Lone Star Girl Scout Council is constructing a new $8-million headquarters and technology center in north Austin, Texas. Designed by Wiginton Hooker Jeffry Architects of Dallas, the 20,000-sf facility will be constructed by the Austin office of Dallas-based general contractor Constructors and Associates Inc. Ground was broken in March of 2004. The current Girl Scouts headquarters is comprised of 6,000-sf.  

Time Warner Cable is expanding with the construction of a $36-million facility adjacent to its existing offices in Charlotte, N.C. Time Warner, the second-largest operator of cable systems in the nation, currently employs 700 workers in Charlotte and plans to expand operations with 350 new jobs to include additional functions.

Time Warner opened its new headquarters in New York City  in early February 2004. The $1.7-billion facility will house the future Manhattan studios of CNN. The two-tower development accommodates 211,000 sf of office space. The 2.8 million-sf complex also contains a luxury hotel and high-end retail space.

H&R Block has selected Houston-based Hines to develop and manage its new 500,000-sf headquarters in Kansas City, Mo. Approximately 1,200 employees will be relocated to the new facility from the company’s Main Street headquarters and other leased locations when the new building is ready for occupancy in summer of 2006. A second 250,000-sf expansion phase of the headquarters is planned in 2013. The project team includes general contractor JE Dunn Construction Co. and architect CDFM2. 

NASA is seeking a developer for the planned 225,000-sf Conference and Education Center at the 213-acre NASA/Ames Research park located in Moffett Field, Calif. The $35-million project will feature 35,000 sf of meeting space, providing the sixth-largest conference facility in Silicon Valley.

Kellogg USA is developing a 750,000-sf distribution center in the Tracy Logistics Center in Tracy, Calif. Sited on 35 acres, the concrete tilt-up project will include 8,000 sf of office and is slated for completion in April. The project contractor is Oltmans Construction Co. of Whittier, Calif. The 150-acre Tracy Logistics Center was built by developer Pattillo Properties of Atlanta.

Adobe has begun to occupy the $117-million Adobe Systems Tower, its third facility in San Jose, Calif. Designed by Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum of San Francisco, Adobe’s $200-million, three-building urban campus totals nearly 1 million-sf of office space.

Cosmetics manufacturer Mary Kay will occupy a 135,000-sf build-to-suit facility sited on 17 acres in the Shawnee Ridge business park in Gwinnett County, Ga. The warehouse will replace Mary Kay’s current 70,000-sf distribution warehouse in Duluth. The new facility is expected to reach completion in September 2004.  

PeopleSoft completed the 185,000-sf Building G at its Pleasanton, Calif., headquarters in July of 2003. The project was designed by architects Gensler and RMW and built by contractor San Jose Construction Company. The project was completed after fifteen months of construction.

Sigma Xi, the international scientific and engineering honor society and publisher of American Scientist magazine, is building a 52,840-sf headquarters facility in Research Triangle Park. The building will house a 200-seat auditorium, exhibit space, conference facilities, a catering kitchen, and office space for Sigma Xi's 44 employees.

The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts and architects Foster and Partners of London and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture of Rotterdam and New York have completed the master plan for a new Dallas arts center. The center will house three performance venues, the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, an 800-seat multiform theater, and the 5,000-seat Annette Strauss Artist Square, with an expanded seating capacity of up to 10,000. Construction on the $250-million center is expected to begin in 2004 with completion in late 2007 or early 2008.  

Ring Power Corp. has selected Elkins Constructors to build its 400,000-sf Jacksonville, Fla., headquarters at World Commerce Center, a 1,000-acre development in St. Johns County. Ring Power, one of the largest full-line Caterpillar dealers in the Southeast, will house its 800 employees in the new facility. Construction is expected to begin by the end of September 2003.

FedEx Ground is planning a $50-million distribution center on 96 acres in Boone County’s Enterprise V Industrial Park in Northern Kentucky. The 335,000-sf hub will include the latest automated package sorting technology when it opens in 2005. The facility will process 45,000 packages per hour at full capacity and may employ over 235 workers.