High Tech

TTC will build a new two-building corporate campus totaling 280,000 sf in Germantown. The facility for the high-tech company, which currently employs approximately 700 locally, is scheduled to begin construction in early 2001, with occupancy in mid-2002. A third 125,000 sf to 150,000 sf building is in the works for 2003, with an option for two additional structures by 2009 for a total of 700,000 sf at the site. TTC expects employee growth to total approximately 1,500 in the next eight years.

Teradyne, based in Boston, will expand manufacturing and engineering for its industrial consumer division when it occupies a 232,000-sf, one-story facility in Woburn previously owned by Digital Equipment Corp. of Cambridge. The building will be extensively refurbished, with occupancy scheduled for December 2000. The semiconductor company is also breaking ground at a 38-acre site in North Reading on the third building of a four-building complex there.

Internet Center @ TeleCom City, a $15 million telecommunications project approved by the Mystic Valley Development Commission in late May, will create a state-of-the-art facility in TeleCom City Park where General Electric once built tanks during World War II. Demolition of the existing structure in June will give way to a two-story, 260,000-sf structure, 100,000 sf of which is scheduled for completion by year's end. The building will be subdividable into 30,000-sf areas, and will be wired with fiber-optic lines.

Piazza Del Corleone, a $100-million to $125-million telecommunications facility, is slated to break ground in July in San Francisco. Two three-story buildings are planned, with completion of the building shells by December 2000. San Jose-based Habitec Architecture and Planning is designing the 324,000-sf to 500,00-sf project. Special features include water-tight rooms, link redundancy, multiple fiber-optic cables, reinforced floors, space for back-up power, on-site round-the-clock security, and seismic reinforcements to hospital-level standards.

Electroglas Inc. has relocated its Santa Clara, Calif., manufacturing and engineering operations to a new $40 million, 263,000-sf headquarters in Edenvale. San Jose-based Kenneth Rodrigues & Partners Inc. designed the new facility which will house almost 100 Electroglas employees. Builder for the project was Devcon Construction Inc. of Milpitas, Calif. The 22-acre site has room to accommodate an additional 100,000-sf building. Electroglas manufactures capital equipment for the semiconductor industry.

ONI Systems has plans for a new 455,000-sf, five-building corporate headquarters on 2.5 acres in South San Jose. The optical networking equipment vendor currently employs 400 at its operations in North San Jose.

Fairchild Semiconductor has a new $440,000 facility at the Palomar Crest Corporate Center in Carlsbad, Calif. The building, which includes private offices, conference rooms, and computer labs, was designed by Cooper Roberts Bennett Commercial Design of San Diego. Fairchild has hired San Diego-based Pacific Interior Systems to build out 25,000 sf of office space at the new facility.

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.

Microcoating Technologies has selected Lord, Aeck & Sargent Interactive Design of Atlanta to design a 200,000-sf master-planned lab and office complex where Microcoating will research and manufacture its thin film products. Lord Aeck & Sargent Interactive Design’s specialty is architecture for high tech companies.

Samsung Austin Semiconductor LLP is investing $200 million to revamp its entire plant from .23 micron to .18 miron chips, the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) industry standard for chip size. Equipment for the micron shift is expected to be moved in by summer 2000. The upgrade will also include a $7 million, 19,000-sf addition of lab and office space to accommodate the company's electronic die sort operations. Completion of the additional space is anticipated in late 2000 or early 2001.

Toshiba will partner with SanDisk of Silicon Valley to invest $700 million in an expansion at the Dominion Semiconductor plant in Manassas for a new company, Flash-Vision, that plans to manufacture a new memory chip there.

Infineon Technologies, a division of the German company, Siemens A.G., opened a 11,000-sf design center in Research Triangle Park, N.C., in April. In the next two years, the semiconductor company plans to add a 5,000-sf development center to accommodate a production test lab as well as double its staff.

Georgia Institute of Technology will have a new advanced computing and information technology complex thanks to a $15 million gift from a former student at the institution.

EpicEdge Inc. will relocate its executive staff from Houston to a $500 million headquarters in Austin. By the end of 2000, the company expects to employ more than 100 people at the new location. EpicEdge specializes in high tech systems integration and Web consulting.

Summit Technologies plans to start construction in August 2000 on a $3 million, 97,000-sf service center complex in North Austin. Coordinator for the three-building project is Development 2000. Summit Technologies produces ophthalmic laser systems.