After breaking ground last month, the center's shell is slated for completion in early 2002. The building is designed to house back-office operations such as call centers, data centers and other technology-intensive operations that need reliable sources of power andtelecommunications services.

The contact says the McAllen-Mission area in the Rio Grand Valley has been rated the fourth-leading, back-office operations city in the United States. Other progress points for the project include the appointment of CB Richard Ellis as the leasing agent for the 75,000-sf building.

Hugh D. Baker Jr., CentraTek CEO and Hunt Power vice president, says "The STBCs will be facilities that can serve as a computer-intensive data center at one extreme or a people-intensive customer support center at the other. They'll be facilities where workspace can be reconfigured over a weekend to accommodate a light-manufacturing process or a back-office operation." The center is designed for a high level of worker comfort, a factor that is aimed at increasing employee productivity and decreasing turnover. The structure, says Baker, offers the reliable power and high-tech services that are mission critical in today's work environment.