Business Briefs: MU cancer center funding on track

Gov. Matt Blunt announced this month that he will ask the General Assembly to allocate $31.2 million from the 2008 supplemental budget to provide for the construction of a new Ellis Fischel Cancer Center. Leaders in the legislature indicated they also support the allocation
   
University of Missouri Health Care’s construction plans call for the cancer center to be located in the University Hospital and Clinics campus north of Stadium Boulevard. The 100,000-square-foot building is expected to cost $52 million. Executive Director James H. Ross said during the Economic Outlook Conference this month that future plans for the existing 70-year-old building on Business Loop 70 are uncertain. 
   
Included in the new facility will be space for radiation oncology, expanded radiology and imaging capabilities, chemotherapy treatment, outpatient surgical procedure rooms and recovery areas, 24 examination rooms and a variety of other services.
  
Survey determines commercial vacancy rates
While it appears that Columbia has a lot of vacant retail and office space because of the prominent locations of empty buildings, the overall commercial vacancy rate is only about 10 percent, according to a survey conducted by Paul Land of the Plaza Real Estate Services Commercial Division.
   
Land said during the Economic Outlook Conference on Dec. 4 that Plaza is creating a baseline of the market inventory of retail, industrial and office properties and will share it with the public. 
   
The survey of office inventory found that total square footage is 4,368,500, vacant square footage is 441,100 and the vacancy rate is 10.09 percent. For industrial property, the total square footage is 8,115,700, the vacant square footage is 711,900 and the vacancy rate is 8.77 percent. The retail inventory covers 6,111,820 square feet, with 619,100 vacant square footage and a 10.13 percent vacancy rate.
   
The full report will come out in January or February, Land said. The survey does not include the Central Business District, government-owned facilities, hotels, multi-family housing, college properties and space at Columbia Regional Airport.
  
GlenMartin expanding, rebranding
GlenMartin, a Boonville firm, has expanded its operations and entered into a strategic business relationship with Woodruff Sweitzer, which will be responsible for repositioning the company and leading its rebranding efforts, company officials said.
   
GlenMartin began in 1918 as a company that engineered, designed and built machines and appliance parts for various industrial companies. In 1982, the family-owned company adopted the name Glen Martin Engineering and focused its energies on the communications markets. 
   
GlenMartin recently built a new manufacturing facility, adding more than 100,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehousing capability. 
   
From the Boonville offices, the company operates three local manufacturing and warehouse facilities and also has locations in Mexico City and Tianjin, China