Lucent Technologies Undertaking $65-Mil Expansion in Dallas, Pennsylvania and Mexico

DALLAS-Lucent Technologies Microelectronics Group is poised for expansion, announcing a $65-million program for office, laboratory and manufacturing facilities.

The NJ-based company has just completed work on a 16,000-sf addition to its 11,000-sf manufacturing and research and development site in Dallas’ Northgate Business Park II and is making plans for an additional 26,000 sf in the immediate vicinity. “Where or what has not been determined yet,” Lucent’s Carl Blesch tells GlobeSt.com. “Our interest is there, but the particulars have to be determined.”

Lucent had acquired the fabrication facility earlier this year when it bought out Herrmann Technology. The expansion will double production capacity by May 2001. Lucent now employs about 85 people at 10410 Miller Rd. in Dallas as a result of a recent hiring wave.

Expansions and staff additions also are in the offing for Breinigsville and Reading, PA and Matamoros, Mexico. The $65-million expansion plan will create an additional 750 jobs over the next three years at Lucent, which manufactures components used in high-speed optical communications networking systems.

The Breinigsville, PA, campus is adding a $28-million, 120,000-sf office and lab facility to its Optoelectronics Center, which is set for a late spring 2001 completion. The company also is contemplating a second office structure delivering another 90,000 sf to the campus. In Upper Macungie Township, the firm is investing $11 million in a fiber-amplifier manufacturing base, where Lucent has leased an initial 125,000 sf.

Lucent is pumping $7 million into its Reading manufacturing site while a build-to-suit, 80,000-sf manufacturing facility is being constructed in Mexico, positioned about a mile from the firm’s existing operation. Lucent plans an early 2001 move-in.

Lucent is preparing to spin off its Microelectronics Group in late summer 2001 to create the only major stand-alone semiconductor business offering end-to-end networking solutions for the convergence of photonics and electronics in integrated circuits and optoelectronic components. The new company also will provide wireless computer networking system solutions through its ORiNOCO product line.