SciTech Acquires MetroNexus Construction unit

April 5, 2001 -- SciTech Construction has acquired the tenant improvement construction unit of MetroNexus, a developer of carrier hotels, the companies said today.
SciTech is a new business unit of the York Hunter Group of Companies, which will gain a foothold in the telecom construction industry with the acquisition.
Under the terms of the agreement, SciTech will employ the former MetroNexus construction staff and oversee the completion of its current tenant workload, including jobs for Qwest Communications, Swisscom North America, Startec Global Communications and MCI Worldcom.
SciTech said it will complete more than $13.7 million worth of build-outs at a Manhattan telco hotel at111 Eighth Avenue, in addition to projects in Newark, Miami and Upstate New York.
MetroNexus currently partners with local developers to execute its carrier hotel rollouts, with in-house staff supervising to ensure a consistent process. MetroNexus said it will continue to maintain an in-house technical team to ensure standardized practices.
"This has been a mutually beneficial move for MetroNexus and SciTech," said Alex Twining, President and COO of MetroNexus, "Our agreement will enable us to free up resources, streamline our organization, and derive more benefit from our network of local development partners. Overall, our ability to execute speed-to-market-facilities on an international basis will be improved."
"For years we have been working in the highly focused industry of science, technology and telecom," said Kenneth Colao, chief executive officer of York Hunter. "Because the field is growing so rapidly, and is extremely specialized, it is in our clients' best interest to have an entire group devoted exclusively to them."
The former MetroNexus construction group has completed more than 25 projects, valued in excess of $65 million.
MetroNexus, a Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds Enterprise, headquartered in New York, focuses on the acquisition, development, leasing and management of state-of-the-art, carrier-neutral carrier hotels in North America and Europe. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter launched the $1.25 billion global network of state-of-the-art carrier-neutral telecom hotels in May 2000.