Biotechnology

Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing (GRAM) is constructing a $60 million facility in Grand Rapids, Mich. Designed by CRB, the 61,500-sf facility will include a state-of-the-art cleanroom, two formulation suites, and 14,000 sf of shell space to accommodate future growth. Capable of producing a wide range of commercial batch sizes, the aseptic manufacturing plant will integrate leading-edge automation technologies and high-speed instrumentation to support the production of parenteral medicinal solutions.

Beacon Pharmaceuticals is planning to break ground by early 2020 on a 150,000-sf biosciences accelerator and headquarters facility in Jupiter, Fla. Designed by Kobi Karp Architecture & Interior Design, the $80 million facility will feature a pharmaceutical business incubator to support early-stage companies from concept to commercialization.

North Carolina State University broke ground on the $160 million Plant Sciences Building in Raleigh in September of 2019. Designed by Flad Architects, the five-story, 184,000-sf facility will allow academic, government, and industry researchers to develop innovative solutions for global agricultural challenges. Located on the Centennial Campus, the building will house growth chambers, environmental rooms, core instrumentation suites, and labs for genotyping, spectrometry, ag-bio engineering, and chemical and soils analysis.

Pfizer is initiating a $500 million expansion of its Sanford campus with the construction of a 100,000-sf gene therapy facility. Supporting the creation of innovative treatments for genetic diseases, the project will feature advance manufacturing technologies for clinical and commercial-scale production of recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors. Accommodating 300 new employees, the facility will complement operations at the existing 628,000-sf Sanford complex and at the company's Chapel Hill and Kit Creek locations.

Amgen broke ground in late July of 2019 on a $200 million biomanufacturing center in West Greenwich, R.I. Featuring a highly flexible, modular design, the next-generation facility will leverage advanced technologies to reduce operational expenses, consume 80 percent less energy and water, and achieve a 75 percent decrease in carbon emissions.

DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners and Leggat McCall Properties are building a Class-A laboratory building in Somerville, Mass. The nine-story, 289,000-sf facility will provide leading-edge research and office space for life sciences and technology companies. The mixed-use development will include dedicated retail space on the ground floor and four levels of underground parking.

HALIX is constructing a 72,000-sf cGMP facility at Leiden Bio Science Park in the Netherlands. Utilizing 1000-liter, single-use bioreactors, the five-story building will accommodate the development and manufacture of biopharmaceutical drug substances for clinical and commercial applications. Housing labs for process development, analytical development, and quality control, the structure will feature cleanrooms with unidirectional process flows with separate areas for protein manufacturing and the production of viral vaccines and viral vectors.

Adaptive Biotechnologies is expanding its presence in Seattle with the lease of a 100,000-sf headquarters building in Seattle. The lab and office facility is located in the Lake Union life science district and is being developed by Alexandria Real Estate Equities. Adaptive will occupy the entire structure, which is sited adjacent to its existing facility. Building amenities will include an open-air plaza, a rooftop desk, a fitness center, locker and shower rooms, and direct access to water sports on Lake Union.

Foundation Medicine will locate its 580,000-sf life science headquarters in a planned 625,000-sf building in Boston's Seaport Square. Designed by Morris Adjmi Architects and Stantec, the leased building will provide leading-edge research, collaboration, and administrative facilities to support the creation of innovative biomedical therapies.

ADC Bio completed construction of a £5 million bioconjugation cleanroom in July of 2019. Located within the company's 70,000-sf facility in Deeside in the United Kingdom, the GMP lab will support the commercial manufacture of innovative antibody-drug conjugates for the treatment of cancer. Designed and constructed by WHP Engineering, the project houses Grade C and D cleanrooms with four-zone HVAC systems for optimal environmental containment.

The term “Fourth Industrial Revolution” (4IR) was coined in 2016 by Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, to describe the exponential transformation society and commerce are experiencing due to converging breakthroughs in numerous fields, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, 3D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, the internet of things (IoT), and quantum computing. While this latest advancement is to some degree an extension of the third revolution (aka: The Digital Revolution), 4IR is considered a new era because of the unprecedented speed, scope, and systems impact of the coming changes. It is evolving at an exponential rate rather than a linear one and is expected to disrupt entire systems of production, management, transportation, and governance on a global scale. In response, a new breed of interdisciplinary research facility is emerging, as academic institutions try to anticipate training students for the unforeseen demands of the 4IR.

ElevateBio has selected DPS Group and TRIA to design ElevateBio BaseCamp, a 108,000-sf cGMP development and manufacturing facility in Waltham. Located in a 430,000-sf office and lab building, the facility will offer integrated R&D, process development, and cGMP manufacturing services for novel therapeutic technologies.

Aldevron will begin construction in August of 2019 on a 14-acre biologics campus in Fargo, N.D., where it is currently headquartered. The first phase comprises a two-story, 189,000-sf facility for the manufacture of plasmid DNA, proteins, mRNA, and antibodies. Increasing Aldevron’s GMP and GMP-Source™ production capacity up to tenfold, the structure will connect to the company's existing GMP facility and is expected to be fully operational by early 2021.

The Wistar Institute is partnering with University Place Associates to construct a 240,000-sf life science discovery hub in the University City district of Philadelphia. Designed to accelerate innovation by providing shared resources and critical infrastructure, the collaborative project will provide leasable laboratories and offices for biotech firms, research companies, and academic institutions.

WuXi Biologics began construction in May of 2019 on a $365 million pharmaceutical production facility in Dundalk, Ireland. Sited on 52 acres, the 522,000-sf contract manufacturing center will utilize single-use technologies and processes, enabling cost-effective scale-out and the simultaneous production of multiple batches of varying volumes. Commercial operations are expected to begin in 2022 at the site, which will be the company's first manufacturing plant outside of China.