High Tech

Sun Microsystems has selected Bottom Duvivier of Redwood City, Calif., to design a 110,000-sf shared work environment at Foundry Square in San Francisco, a project under development by Wilson Equity Office. The facility will house 400 to 500 employees doing research and development, with some employees working from home. At the center, desks and computers can be reserved for given time periods; and lockers are provided. Tenant improvements are scheduled to begin in September 2002, with completion in five months.

Fortress Development has selected RTKL of Baltimore to provide design, master-planning, architecture, engineering, and telecommunications services for its 425-acre Loudoun County data center and office complex. Slated to begin construction in late 2002, the $500-million project, known as CYBERPLEX@DULLES, will feature a 110,000-sf multiple-tenant data center or office building.  

Electroglas, maker of high-tech equipment, is relocating its wafer-prober manufacturing operations from San Jose, Calif., to Singapore. Wafer probers, used in silicon wafer manufacturing for computer chips, are slated to be produced at the Singapore plant beginning in mid-2002; all released probers will reach full production by mid-2003.

U.S. Dataport, based in San Jose, Calif., has abandoned plans to build a 3,750,000-sf, $1.4-billion data center in Gainesville in favor of a general high-tech business park housing office and light manufacturing space for products such as telecom gear or computer chips. The 192-acre site will also provide 400,000 sf of data center space, a $300 million independent power plant, and a Virginia Railway Express station for transporting the potential 3,000 workers to the business park.

RTKL Associates Inc. has been awarded the design contract for the development of Fortress Development Company's (previously  DataCentersNow) new 425-acre data center and office community that will be located in Loudoun County, Virginia. The site will house 2.4 million sf of office space and 860,000 sf of mission critical data center space. Construction for phase one of the 10-year project, which will be completed in two phases, is slated to begin later this year.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced in January that it plans to build its new 300mm chipmaking fabrication plant in Singapore, rather than in Texas or another U.S. location, despite significant efforts by many cities to draw the project to their region. AMD will partner with United Microelectronics Corp., based in Taiwan, to spread the costs of building the fab.

California-based tech giant Cisco Systems has planned 13 buildings in Boxborough and Littleton totalling 1.5 million sf and is seeking approval to develop 500,000 sf in three additional buildings for a total of 2 million sf. At the Boxborough office campus, the network switching and routing company's "second home" in Massachusetts, only a small portion of the currently unoccupied 10-building campus has been built.

Nitronex, a manufacturer of semiconductor chips that increase speed and capacity for wireless applications, recently occupied a new 69,000-sf office/laboratory at the Lincoln Park West business park. The company employs 55 people.

Cisco Systems’ planned 10-building, 1.5-million-sf office campus in Boxborough may be enlarged by half again as much if approvals from state and town agencies are granted. An additional 500,000 sf in three buildings would be added to the Boxborough site, where three structures are half built, and four more have already been approved. The San  Jose, Calif.-based company hopes to consolidate several of its Massachusetts facilities at the Boxborough site. Move-in is anticipated in mid-2003 at the earliest.

Oepic Inc. has begun constructing the initial 4,000 sf of  what will be a new 12,000-sf cleanroom for manufacturing semiconductors that will speed fiber-optic communications. Technical Builders Inc. of San Jose, Calif., is handling the $5-million project. At completion, the cleanroom will house an additional $20 million in equipment.

Austin Community College has a simulated semiconductor fabrication facility under construction.  The goal of the mock fab is to train semiconductor technicians as well as draw semiconductor companies in need of trained workers to the Austin area. The $250,000 facility, which can  accommodate 12 students, will have a gowning room, an air shower, a cleanroom, and a gray room for equipment. Construction of the 1,350-sf simulated fab started in June 2001.

TriQuint Semiconductor Inc., based in Hillsboro, Ore., has plans to add a three-story office and manufacturing building at its 36-acre campus in Richardson. The 124,000-sf facility will accommodate up to 1,000 employees. TriQuent purchased a 420,000-sf building at the site last year. With new building, the campus  will provide a total of 544,000 sf.

SPX, a Michigan company producing technical products and systems, has selected Balantine Corporate Park in Charlotte as the site of their new 100,000-sf office headquarters. Washington, D.C.-based Hickok Warner Fox will design the interior of the building, which will be constructed by Bissell Development. Completion is anticipated in April 2002, at which time at least 50 employees will move in.

Techplace @ 2 St., a new $1.5 million technology incubator located in a renovated former factory, is open in Philadelphia. A nonprofit group, Citizens Alliance, purchased the building, and has been rehabilitating it over the past two years. The facility will feature a cybercafe; a conference center for use by tenants, with Microsoft and Compaq Computer equipment; and adjacent parking. The grand opening is scheduled for December 2001.

ADIC (Advanced Digital Information Corporation) plans to expand at Compark Business Park with a 148,204-sf facility that will provide 80,000 sf of office space and 68,000 sf of hi-tech manufacturing/warehouse space. The structure, originally a speculative project; was modified by Grubb & Ellis to fit ADIC’s specific requirements. ADIC expects to relocate by the end of 2001, and will use the building for manufacturing, R&D, test and systems engineering labs, customer service and support, and training activities.