Wafer Factory 3 had opened in 1974, but the migration from four-inch to eight-inch silicon has made the factory line and its fittings obsolete, says spokesman Jeff Hahn. Over the last eight months, the manufacturing line's 325 workers and the still-relevant equipment have been moved to other wafer factory sites on the Motorola campus.

This week, Boots & Coots Special Services Unit out of Houston had started the tedious process of decontaminating and decommissioning the facility's clean room. "We have brought in subcontractors," Hahn tells GlobeSt.com. "This is a clean room environment and, as such, requires a strenuous protocol to bring it back to commercially viable space. Once it's done, we will have the opportunity to rebuild and remodel the space so it can be renewed."

The Motorola campus consists of 2.5 million sf of office and manufacturing space. Buildings include administrative offices, as well as three wafer fabrication factories, computer chip test floor and computer chip design area. Boots & Coots decommissioned another wafer factory line in 1999.