Corporate

FedEx has selected the Hnedak Bobo Group to provide master planning and architectural design services for its new world headquarters in Memphis. The complex occupies 89 acres and will house an estimated 4,000 employees, a cafeteria, training facility, FXTV studio, legal offices, executive and general administrative offices, and other employee-related facilities. The buildings will be designed for maximum flexibility for FedEx to mix occupants as required to satisfy growth and corporate change.

The Bisys Group, based in Little Falls, N.J., will relocate its planned services office from Ambler, Penn., to 171,500 sf of space at the Montgomery Corporate Center, a new 1.1-million-sf four-building Class A corporate complex in eastern Montgomery County. Groundbreaking for the Bisys space is scheduled for March 2001, with move-in planned for March 2002. Bisys will consolidate 425 employees from Ambler with 175 from Fort Washington at the new site, which can accommodate up to 1,000 employees. Developer of the project is SJP Properties of Parsippany, N.J.

BudCo. of San Antonio Ltd. has plans for a new headquarters and warehouse facility on a 40-acre site in southwest San Antonio. Scheduled groundbreaking is for mid-January, with completion by October or November 2001. Hollerman Duitsman Architects of Saint Louis designed the facility, which will accommodate 98,000 sf of office space and 190,000 sf of distribution space. The project manager is James Pritchard & Associates; the general contractor is Hooker Contracting Co. Inc. of San Antonio.

Nordic Technology Park, a 43,500-sm building formerly used as a Soviet military communications factory, is being converted to an office building for the Baltic high-tech industry. American architects Arrowstreet of Somerville, Mass., working with Latvian architects Valenius un Stepe, are completely renovating the structure.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation completed construction in December 2000 on its new 32,000-sf headquarters and earned the U.S. Green Building Council’s highest “platinum” rating. Some of the building’s environmentally-friendly energy efficient features include rooftop rainwater cisterns, photovoltaic solar panels, composting toilets, energy-efficient insulation, a shading system, and a ground source heat pump. Construction costs ran approximately $199 per sf, which would have been about $150 per sf without the green technologies. J.

Lois Paul & Partners, a national public relations company, will relocate its headquarters from Burlington, Mass., to a 145,000-sf building under construction at MetroNorth Commerce Center in Woburn. The company will occupy 90,000 sf in the five-story structure, which is scheduled for completion in August 2001. Architect for the Lois Paul project is Margulies & Associates of Boston. Special features at the new headquarters include a web café, multimedia conference rooms, and distance learning training facilities.

Cirrus Logic Inc. has plans to consolidate employees from its administrative, engineering, and sales functions at a new 190,000-sf corporate headquarters in Building V at the Terrace Business Park in Austin. The new facility has been approved for construction and will accommodate offices for approximately 500 employees when it opens in summer 2002. Manufacturing and testing operations will continue at the company’s 60,000-sf plant in Southeast Austin. The company will also maintain its storage applications operations in Fremont, Calif.

Associated Press (AP) is renovating their 40,000-sf broadcast news center in Washington, D.C.  AP is working with the architectural firm Liminality, based in Washington, on the $1-million phased overhaul to increase the functionality of the 200-person space by improving lighting and flooring, and creating clearer lines of sight between work areas and the command desk. The general contractor on the project is F.J. Corbett  of Fairfax, Va. The external project manager is Magellan Group Real Estate Services based in Vienna, Va.

DaimlerChrysler Financial Services has retained HarleyEllis for the design of a new $80-million North American headquarters in Auburn Hills. A 360,000-sf complex is planned for 24 acres adjacent to the company’s existing headquarters. The five-floor building will house 1,500 employees and will include a five-level parking deck and atrium, cafeteria with patio seating, 200-seat auditorium, and training and conference center. Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2000, with completion in 2002. Walbridge Aldinger of Auburn Hills is the construction manager.

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) plans to build a new two-building headquarters at Rockville's Tower Oaks development for PG&E's National Energy Group, currently based in Bethesda, Md. PG&E will consolidate operations from Houston and Portland, Ore., at the new 480,000-sf headquarters which will accommodate up to 1,000 employees. The Tower Oaks is owned for the most part by The Tower Co's of North Bethesda, Md.

The Carson Companies has five new single-story office/industrial buildings under construction at the company's 438-acre master-planned Dominguez Technology Center. The high-tech buildings, which total 653,503 sf, will have access to fiber optic and data communication lines. Completion of construction is anticipated between October 2000 and early 2001. The general contractor for the project is Millie and Severson Incorporated of Los Alamitos, Calif. RGA Architecture and Withee Malcolm Partnership designed the buildings.

Media Arts Group has plans for a new four-building campus on 22.71 acres at the proposed 80-acre Madrone Business Park in Morgan Hill. A total of 302,798 sf is planned for the Media Arts site. The first two buildings will be a corporate office building (61,437 sf) and a production facility (155,353 sf). The developer, TBI-Mission West LLC, expects to start construction soon. Media Arts is the production and administrative division of Thomas Kinkade Galleries.

The National Fire and Protection Agency (NFPA) has partnered with Western Fire Chiefs Association (WFCA) and the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) to build a set of Consensus Codes--a new set of codes for the built environment. Their goal is to provide safety officials with a new consistent and compatible set of codes by the year 2003. As part of the Consensus Code project NFPA also plans to devise a NFPA Building Code.

ADC Telecommunications Inc. is planning a new $100 million, eight-building world headquarters and technology campus. The new headquarters, a 91-acre site in Eden Prairie, Minn., will house ADC corporate, engineering, and divisional offices, and include office space, labs, light manufacturing areas and parking facilities. Amenities include a 280-seat auditorium, on-site fitness center, and expanded corporate training facilities. Johnson Controls Personal Environments will be installed at the individual workspaces.

State Street Corporation is occupying 410,000 sf in floors one through six at the Lafayette Corporate Center in Boston's Financial District. The Center--a former shopping mall--has been renovated and expanded to function as first class office space. For the build-out, State Street hired Sasaki Associates of Watertown, Mass., as the architect and George B.H. Macomber Company of Boston as construction manager.