High Tech

ADCS Inc., a hi-tech company specializing in data/document capture and conversion, has contracted Smith Consulting Architects for architecture and interior design of a 94,000-sf, two-story office building in the Parwkay Business Center in Poway. Construction of the $7.9 million project is scheduled to begin in November with completion expected in March 2002. The building will feature a photovoltaic solar collection as part of its state-of-the-art energy saving system.

EKC Technology Inc. has relocated its corporate headquarters to Danville from Hayward, Calif., allowing for an expansion of the company’s manufacturing and R&D operations at the recently-upgraded Hayward site. The new 11,000-sf headquarters houses sales, marketing, accounting, HR, and R&D. EKC, A ChemFirst Inc. company, has additional plants in Scotland and Japan and supplies the semiconductor industry with chemicals for wafer cleaning, surface preparation and residue removal. 

Lightconnect Inc., a fiber optic components design firm, has opened a 5,000-sf manufacturing and testing facility adjacent to its headquarters in Newark. At full capacity the new facility will employ up to 300 people and produce 10,000 variable optical attenuators and 300 dynamic gain equalizers each month. Lightconnect's existing headquarters is focussed on research and development, with limited manufacturing space. 

Intel Corp. has selected Braintree-based Integrated Builders to manage the $3 million renovation of its 80,000-sf Hudson offices.

UK-based ARM Ltd. is seeking approximately 45,000 sf in addition to its 20,000-sf microprocessor design center in Austin, as they have completely filled out their current facility.  ARM designs 32-bit microprocessors that are licensed to its customers.

Opticom Inc. has moved 95 employees into 33,000-sf at Brickstone Square in its home city of Andover, Mass. The software firm has an option on more space at the facility and plans to occupy up to an additional 15,000 to 20,000 sf by 2002.

KLA-Tencor has put occupation of its new Livermore campus on hold until the end of the year. The San Jose-based semiconductor firm purchased 43 acres in the Shea Business Park in May 2000 for a 720,000-sf, six-building campus. Construction on the two buildings to house manufacturing and customer service will continue; totaling 120,000-sf, the facilities are nearing completion.

TestChip Technologies is expanding from 4,000 sf to  30,000 sf in Austin as part of the company's drive to increase its R&D work. A developer of chips that test the semiconductor manufacturing process, the Plano-based firm will be adding 100 employees to its Texas operations. TestChip primarily supplies wafer foundries.

Sycamore Networks is proposing a new $120 million corporate campus in Tyngsborough. The eight-building, 926,500-sf project is planned to accommodate 661,500 sf for R&D housed in four buildings; a 200,000-sf corporate headquarters; a 50,000-sf center for customer care; a 10,000-sf daycare center; and a wellness center that will occupy 5,000 sf. Phase I construction is scheduled for completion in 2002, with full build-out in 2005. The associated parking areas, utilities, driveways, and drainage are included in the project.

BAE Systems Mission Solutions has purchased 11.5 acres in Rancho Bernardo where it will add a 210,000-sf multistory building and parking garage to the existing structure at the site. The high tech defense contractor is a unit of BAE Systems North America, based in Rockville, Md., and employs approximately 1400 people in San Diego. Groundbreaking for the new structures is planned for June 2001, with completion of construction by mid-2002.

Cisco Systems, based in San Jose, Calif., is preparing to go through the design review process for its planned five-building high-tech campus in Dublin. Economic factors, which had caused the company to reassess its plans in March, apparently will not halt the project. Opus West Corp. is the builder for 220,000 sf in two of the structures, the first of which is scheduled for completion in September 001, the second in early 2002.

German firm Leica Microsystems is relocating the headquarters of its semiconductor division to Chantilly, Va. A producer of life-science equipment, Leica will move its division base to a $1.5 million, 10,000-sf facility in the Westfields office park.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is planning a 300mm state-of-the-art plant. The site of the Texas chip manufacturer's new plant, called fab 35, should be determined by the end of 2001, to be built in 2004 or 2005. One of the sites under consideration is Dresden, Germany, where AMD currently has a new 200mm facility, called fab 30, that will hit full production with 1,800 employees at the end of this year. Also under construction is an AMD/Fujitsu joint venture mega fab in Japan that could potentially produce 300mm wafers.

Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC), based in El Segundo, Calif., is planning a new $42-million 325,000-sf office at the MetroView development across from IRS headquarters in Carrollton. CSC heads a seven-company team working on the modernization of the US tax system. The IT company’s new facility will house 1,225 employees. Construction is scheduled to start in summer 2001, with completion in May 2003. The general contractor is Gilford Construction. Beltsville, Md.-based Stephens Aylward & Associates is the architect.

Computer Sciences Corporation is locating a new campus in downtown Austin through a public-private collaboration with the city. Phase one of the $160 million facility will house 350,000-sf of office space and 42,000-sf of retail space. Upon completion of the second phase, the project will total 700,000-sf, with 80,000-sf of office and 100,000-sf of retail. Architect for the project is PageSoutherlandPage.