Lockheed Martin Corp., represented in IAMC by Geoffrey J. Troan, director, real estate, and Terri Beattie, president of LMC Properties, on August 31 announced it had won a contract worth an initial $4 billion and potentially more than $8 billion to build manned spacecraft for NASA. Lockheed has said the contract could generate as many as 2,300 direct jobs, including 600 in Denver. "The Lockheed Martin Orion program office is located in Houston, Texas, co-located with NASA's Johnson Space Center, providing support in the areas of program management, requirements development, software development, avionics, human factors, and system qualification testing," read the company's press release."Large structures and composites will be built at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La. Final assembly, checkout and acceptance testing of Orion for both the Crew Module and Service Module will be performed in the Operations and Checkout (O&C) facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center."

Lockheed's team for the Orion manned space vehicle (inset) includes fellow IAMC member firm Honeywell. According to published reports, as many as 600 new jobs could come to Lockheed's space systems operating unit in Littleton, Colo., above.

Richard "Dick" Hunter is responsible for Dell's global customer contact center operations in the Americas, India and the Philippines.

IAMC member firm Johnson & Johnson's subsidiary JOM Pharmaceutical Services has broken ground on a 325,000-sq.-ft. pharmaceutical distribution center in Shepherdsville, Bullitt County, Ky., that will create 100 jobs and represent an initial investment of $15.5 million in machinery and equipment alone. "JOM Pharmaceutical Services selected Shepherdsville because of its central location and the excellent assistance we received from the Commonwealth of Kentucky," said Courtney Billington, Vice President of Johnson & Johnson's Global Pharmaceutical Supply Group in North America. Mert Livingstone, vice president, global site operations for Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical R&D, is an IAMC member and Fellow. "The Louisville-Metro and Bullitt County region has become a logistics hub," said Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher, "offering companies a central location and access to a world-class freight airport and the UPS Worldport international hub."
"JOM Pharmaceutical Services' decision to locate their new facility in Bullitt County reinforces how the strengths of all communities in the Greater Louisville region combine to make us more globally competitive," said IAMC member Joe Reagan, president and CEO, Greater Louisville Inc. — The Metro Chamber of Commerce. an IAMC member.
In other J&J news, its former campus in North Brunswick, N.J., has been acquired by North Brunswick TOD Associates, LLC, an affiliate of Garden Homes and Garden Commercial Properties, based in Kendall Park, N.J. Plans for the existing 1.2 million sq. ft. of warehouse, office and laboratory buildings will focus on re-leasing the property to short-term tenants. The company has retained IAMC member firm Lee & Klatskin Associates to handle the leasing assignment. "This property is well suited to a variety of tenants including those in need of warehousing, distribution, light manufacturing, laboratory and office space," said Chuck Fern of Lee & Klatskin. "We can subdivide the property into distribution, warehouse and light industrial spaces ranging from 30,000 square feet to 900,000 square feet. The 60,000-square feet of office and laboratory space can be subdivided into parcels as small as 5,000 square feet. We have already seen tremendous interest in this property by both long- and short-term tenants." Robert Kossar, principal and executive vice president of Lee & Klatskin, is an IAMC member.

Imation's Southaven Distribution Center in IDI's Stateline Business Park in Mississippi

Gregory Matecki

The Kansas City Aviation Department has hired Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co. as master developer for the KCI Business Airpark, located on the southeast corner of the airfield at Kansas City International Airport. "The City of Kansas City, Missouri, is committed to transforming Kansas City International Airport into a major center for manufacturing, intermodal shipping and commercial development," said Wayne Cauthen, city manager. "Trammell Crow has experience all over the world and has initiated development projects at several major airports," said Mark VanLoh, director of the Kansas City Aviation Department. Recent Trammell Crow development projects include sites near airports in Dallas/Ft. Worth and Houston, Portland, Ore., and Calgary, Alberta. Tim Cowden, senior vice president of business development for the Kansas City Area Development Council, is an IAMC member, as is Atlanta-based Rob Metcalf, senior vice president for Trammell Crow.

In the state next door, the 30-month-old Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition recently reported its public-private partnership had facilitated 32 projects resulting in 6,430 jobs, and already reaching 80 percent of its five-year, 8,000-job goal. When the effort began in 2004, more than 125 businesses signed on to invest nearly $4 million and the city of Wichita and Sedgwick County pledged $1.5 million each plus additional funding for incentives. "We're a different community than we were three years ago in economic development activity," said IAMC member and GWEDC President Patrick French. "We have moved projects from initial phone call to announcement in less than a week." Among the organization's public-sector partners is the Kansas Department of Commerce, represented in IAMC by Bill Thompson, business recruitment manager.

Empire State Building

As IAMC member firm CBRE celebrates its 100th anniversary on one coast (San Francisco), it's been appointed exclusive leasing agent for the world's most famous office building on the other. On August 30, CBRE announced it would be the marketing leader for the 2.7-million-sq.-ft. Empire State Building. "The Empire State Building's time as an elite office building has come," said Mary Ann Tighe, CEO of CBRE's New York Tri-State Region. The 102-story skyscraper was constructed in 1931.

The tax incentives business of IAMC member firm Mintax has been acquired by fellow New Jersey company ADP Employer Services, a provider of payroll, HR and benefits services. Brian Corde, executive director of Mintax, is an IAMC member. "The acquisition of Mintax's tax incentives business will be exceptionally valuable to ADP payroll clients," said Campbell Langdon, president, ADP Tax, Retirement and Pre-Employment Service. "However it will also be of significant value to those using other payroll solutions. These tax credit and economic incentive programs, supported by federal, state and local governments, can significantly reduce clients' operating costs." "This acquisition represents a significant win for our clients, as it will enable us to provide an increasingly broad portfolio of products and services backed by the world class service and resources of a financially strong Fortune 500 company," said Phil Schepel, President, Mintax, Inc. ADP Employer Services features a Tax Credit Services division.

La Dawn Taylor

The Alter Group has welcomed La Dawn Taylor as its new director of business development, construction services, based in Chicago. Taylor previously was vice president of business development for Interior Space International (ISI), the interior design unit of the Chicago-based architecture, engineering, construction and graphic design firm and IAMC member organization A. Epstein and Sons International, Inc. Todd Yates, Atlanta-based senior vice president of The Alter Group, is an IAMC member, a is John Patelski, president of A. Epstein & Sons. Yates recently helped seal a lease by IAMC member firm Weyerhaeuser Co. for regional office space at Alter's Chattahoochee Corners business park in Duluth, Ga.

BOC Group PLC , now owned by Linde, in July opened the largest largest Chinese commercial helium distribution center in the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) in Jiangsu province, employing 18 people. "The Suzhou investment is the latest in a series of commitments that BOC has made to strengthen the position in the rapidly growing Chinese market," said Phil Kornbluth, vice president, global helium, BOC. "BOC plans to continue to invest in Chinese infrastructure in an effort to provide the highest level of service to Chinese helium customers." A BOC project expected to employ a similar number of people is also unfolding in upstate New York, where the company is constructing a new carbon dioxide plant to capture and sell gases from an ethanol plant nearby. The BOC facility will purify carbon dioxide from the ethanol plant to be operated by Permolex International and Northeast Biofuels, then liquify it for sale to food and beverage companies and chemical manufacturers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the New England region. The customers will be. Pete Garra, New Jersey-based director of real estate for BOC Group, is an IAMC board member.

J. Patrick Spainhour

The ServiceMaster Co., which boasts four Active IAMC members, in June announced the appointment of J. Patrick Spainhour as its new chairman and CEO. Spainhour, a member of the ServiceMaster board, had accepted the CEO position on an interim basis in May, and is the former chairman and CEO at Ann Taylor Stores Corp. ServiceMaster's network of more than 5,500 company-owned locations and franchised licenses includes the brands TruGreen ChemLawn, Terminix and Merry Maids.

The story of the John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. relocation to the Chicagoland city of Elgin reached a conclusion in early August when IAMC member firms Grubb & Ellis and NAI Hiffman teamed to sell three of its former properties in Elk Grove Village and Arlington Heights to fellow IAMC member firm ProLogis. But that 1 million sq. ft. is just another notch in the development belt for ProLogis: Its more recent activity includes a new $70-million, 527,000-sq.-ft. industrial warehouse in Tokyo's Chiba Prefecture, and the acquisition of a 700,000-sq.-ft. industrial building in California's Inland Empire that will be incorporated into the company's 1.8-million-sq.-ft. ProLogis Park Redlands, near Ontario International Airport. The industrial REIT's U.S. home page currently features case studies profiling its work with fellow IAMC members Coors and Fortune Brands.

Finally, that growing suburban Chicago market is just as enticing to the material makers as the material users. In late June, IAMC member firm Holcim's Aggregate Industries subsidiary acquired for $231 million the assets of Meyer Material Company, whose main markets are the northwest Chicago metro and southeastern Wisconsin. Meyer has 125 metric tons of reserves, 750 employees, six sand and gravel pits, 25 ready-mix concrete plants and one concrete paving products manufacturing facility. "Meyer provides a new platform for the future growth of the Holcim Group in the fast growing suburbs of Chicago, the third largest city in the U.S.," said the company's release. "In addition, Holcim expects to achieve significant synergies from more efficient cement logistics and product optimization at Holcim US. Meyer is to be fully integrated into Aggregate Industries' U.S. operations and will be managed as a new region." Kathy Shanteau, real estate manager for Holcim US, and Sharon Patchett, real estate coordinator, are IAMC members.