Providence, Rhode Island-based Gilbane Building Co. topped out the NanoFab Reflection facility in Albany, New York, the cornerstone of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s initiative to bolster semiconductor manufacturing in the Empire State, according to a Dec. 8 news release from the governor’s office. The $614 million project anchors a $1 billion investment in the NY Creates’ Albany NanoTech Complex.
The 310,000-square-foot facility will include 50,000 square feet of state-of-the-art cleanroom space, according to the governor’s office. Additional facets of the four-story structure’s project scope include two levels of clean space, a waffle table, two additional levels of support space above the operating level and an HVAC rooftop "penthouse" for mechanical equipment, such as air handlers, according to Gilbane and the company’s project page.
In addition, the project will include a 900 car parking garage and is aiming to achieve the highest level of LEED certification, per Gilbane.
Gilbane worked with Amsterdam-based manufacturing construction firm DPS Advanced Technology Group, a subsidiary of design firm Arcadis, over the course of the job. The team won the project in January.
“Today's milestone represents the latest step in establishing New York as the hub for domestic semiconductor production,” said Hope Knight, Empire State Development president and CEO, in the governor’s news release.
As the year has progressed, contractors have looked to bolster their presences in the advanced manufacturing and data center sectors. Swedish builder Skanska, for example, grew its advanced technology unit, which came on the strength of related data center builds. However, as those projects boom, more broadly, nonresidential construction spending has dipped three times in the past four months.
“Momentum remains confined almost exclusively to the data center segment,” said Anirban Basu, Associated Builders and Contractors chief economist, in a Nov. 17 news release detailing the contraction. “This should come as no surprise given that approximately 1 in 7 ABC members are under contract to work on a data center, and those contractors have significantly higher backlog than those that are not.”
