New Labs, New Funds: Activity Blossoms in the Leading U.S. Biopharma Clusters

A report issued in June by global commercial real estate firm Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis illustrated the strength of the life sciences in the nation’s top regional clusters and beyond.1 Between 2001 and 2021, the life sciences workforce expanded 79% to approximately 500,000 jobs—nearly 10 times the overall U.S. job growth rate of 8% during that period.

While the life sciences sector is experiencing falling stock prices for public companies and fewer financings for private ones, the industry continues to enjoy a wave of new activity by developers of laboratory/office sites and by venture capital (VC) funds.

Let’s revisit the life sciences regions that we briefly described and ranked in our June issue of GEN in an article entitled, “Top 10 U.S. Biopharma Clusters.”2 In this article, we add news and information that clearly indicates that these regions are still booming.

Boston/Cambridge

San Francisco Bay Area

New York/New Jersey

In the Big Apple, the New York City Economic Development Corporation anticipates that that an additional 10 million square feet of wet laboratory space will be brought online over the next 10–15 years. That includes a 200,000-square-foot property for which construction is set to start next year at 309 East 94 Street, a property co-owned by Nuveen Real Estate and Elevate Research Properties. Alexandria Real Estate Equities in June opened its second Alexandria LaunchLabs in the New York City, at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center campus. Also in June, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals broke ground on a $1.8 billion expansion of its Tarrytown, NY, headquarters. Finally, the New Brunswick Development Corporation is constructing the $665 million, 550,000-square-foot New Jersey Innovation and Technology Hub.

BioHealth Capital Region (Maryland/Virginia/Washington, DC)

Trammell Crow announced plans in May to build an initial 757,000-square-foot life sciences campus within Johns Hopkins University’s Belward Campus in Montgomery County, MD’s Shady Grove section, with potential to expand to approximately 1.6 million square feet across seven buildings. Kite Pharma, a subsidiary company of Gilead Sciences, received FDA approval in April to begin commercial production at a new 275,000-square-foot center in Frederick, MD, for the manufacture of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies. In Virginia, Thermo Fisher Scientific is adding 500 jobs in and around Richmond through a $97 million expansion of clinical research operations, and Virongy Biosciences plans up to 70 new jobs by expanding within the Northern Virginia Bioscience Center, which opened in March in Prince William County.

San Diego

[Alexandria Real Estate Equities]

Los Angeles/Orange County

Breakthrough Properties, an LA-based joint venture of Tishman Speyer and Bellco Capital, in April closed the largest real estate fund ($3 billion) dedicated exclusively to the life sciences. Also in April, Pasadena-based Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals joined Vivo Capital to launch Visirna Therapeutics with $60 million and plans to develop four Arrowhead RNAi cardiometabolic therapeutics in Greater China. Beverly Hills-based Kairos Ventures later closed a $58 million third fund focused on life sciences and physical science startups. And Thousand Oaks-based Amgen has sold an 8.2-acre property where the company used run a welcome center. The property was bought for $25.5 million by the Latigo Group, which plans to repurpose the site to house up to 333 apartments, 20% at below-market rents.

Greater Philadelphia

Seattle

At the foot of Seattle’s iconic Space Needle, Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation and LPC West broke ground in June on the 197,000-square-foot 222 Fifth in South Lake Union, set for 2024 completion. Seattle-based Sana Biotechnology now plans to build an 80,000-square-foot manufacturing site in Bothell instead of in the San Francisco Bay Area—a change expected to save $100 million. Several developments involve Bothell-based Seagen. First, Seagen announced plans for a 270,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in nearby Everett. Second, the company’s president, CEO, and chairman Clay Siegall, PhD, abruptly resigned after his arrest on a domestic violence charge. Third, a news report appeared that Seagen might be acquired by Merck & Co., which has already partnered with Seagen on two development projects.

North Carolina (including Raleigh-Durham and Research Triangle Park)

Chicagoland

References

1. Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE). Life Sciences Research Talent 2022. Published June 13, 2022. Accessed July 12, 2022.

2. Philippidis A. Top 10 U.S. Biopharma Clusters. Genet. Eng. Biotechnol. News 2022; 42: 20–21.