Biotechnology

UC Berkeley will open the $162-million Stanley Hall in January of 2007. The 285,000-sf biosciences and bioengineering facility will house approximately 40 research labs, administrative and bioengineering department offices, and up to 10 core facilities. One of these core facilities, the 11,000-sf Biomolecular Nanotechnology Center, will manufacture chips for biochemical and medical applications. Stanley Hall will serve over 30 faculty and over 100 graduate students and is designed to foster multi-disciplinary collaboration.

Genentech is planning to add 2.5 million sf of space to its South San Francisco footprint over the next ten years. More than doubling the company's occupied space in the city, Genentech's ten-year master plan details the campus of the future as a 6 million-sf network of pedestrian-friendly sites with up to 16 new buildings. Office and laboratory space will comprise 50 percent of the expansion and will account for 33 percent of the new construction. The six-building West Campus will house a majority of the new development.

The State University of New York (SUNY) has selected The S/L/A/M Collaborative to design three new science projects. At SUNY Buffalo, the 145,000-sf Acheson Hall will be renovated to provide a new home for the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences on the South Campus. The former chemistry building will be completely gutted and renovated to provide new classroom and biotech research space in a LEED® certified facility.

Nexus Properties is constructing the 141,157-sf University City Science Center in La Jolla, Calif. The two buildings comprise 50,925 sf and 90,232 sf and will accommodate biotechnology and R&D companies. The two-story project was designed by Pacific Cornerstone Architects and is slated for completion in late 2007. Staples Construction Company is the general contractor with CB Richard Ellis as leasing manager.

Wake Forest University has dedicated its new $72-million Biotechnology Research Facility 1 (BRF1), the sixth building at the Piedmont Triad Research Park which is located on 240 acres in downtown Winston-Salem, N.C. The University's Institute for Regenerative Medicine along with the Lipid Sciences Research Group will both be housed in offices and labs in the five-story, 187,000-sf structure, which commenced construction a little over two years ago. Architect for the project was O'Brien Atkins; Shelco Inc. was the builder.

Wake Forest University and industry partners celebrated the grand opening of the 189,000-sf Biotechnology Research Facility 1 in Winston-Salem's Piedmont Triad Research Park in May of 2006. The five-story, $60-million facility will house space for private companies and academic space for Wake Forest Health Sciences' Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the Lipid Sciences program.   

Genzyme celebrated the topping-off of its new 177,000-sf laboratory and administrative facility in Framingham, Mass., in April 2006. The state-of-the-art building, designed by ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge with construction management by Bovis Lend Lease, will consolidate Genzyme scientists from a number of different locations when it opens in the third quarter of 2007.

South San Francisco-based Genentech will construct a $250-million, 150,000-sf therapeutics filling and packaging facility on a 100-acre site in Hillsboro, Ore. The project will break ground in mid-2006 and reach completion by 2008; with U.S. FDA licensing, operations will commence by 2010. Genentech is also expanding its existing 427,000-sf Vacaville, Calif., manufacturing facility with the addition of 380,000 sf of production and fermentation space.

Biotech giant Amgen will expand its South San Francisco campus with the addition of 500,000 sf of R&D space over the next three years. The first 92,000-sf facility is under construction; a second 92,000-sf structure will break ground in spring of 2006. The two buildings will house up to 700 employees total. Amgen also has an option to occupy three new adjacent buildings, yet to be constructed, with footprints of 100,000 sf each.

The University of Washington is nearing completion on construction of the new William H. Foege Building in Seattle. Providing a central home for the Department of Bioengineering, the 260,000-sf, $150-million facility broke ground in 2001.

Affymetrix, a maker of DNA array chi, has initiated construction on a new 110,584-sf manufacturing plant in West Sacramento, Calif. Accommodating production lines for the company's next generation of high-resolution GeneChips, the facility will double Affymetrix's output by the second half of 2007. Affymetrix's existing West Sacramento facility is 52,000 sf. Additionally, Affymetrix has purchased a 100,000-sf former semiconductor factory in Singapore which it will convert for production.

Amgen, based in Thousand Oaks, Calif., will spend $1-billion to expand its operations in Cork, Ireland. The project will provide new process development, bulk manufacturing, and fill-and-finish facilities and is slated to break ground later in 2006. The facilities will be operational in 2009. Additionally, Amgen will construct a new development center in Uxbridge, U.K., and expand R&D operations in Cambridge, Mass., San Franscisco, Seattle, and Cambridge, U.K. Amgen will relocate its European headquarters to Zug, Switzerland, from Lucerne.

United Therapeutics will complete construction on its $32-million laboratory production facility in Silver Spring, Md., in spring of 2006. Sited adjacent to the company's existing biotech headquarters, the 50,000-sf, three-story building was developed and funded by Wachovia Development, who will lease it back to United Therapeutics through 2011. The facility, which broke ground in 2004, will accommodate drug development and pilot production.

San Rafael, Calif.-based Wareham Development will begin construction in June 2006 on the third phase of its EmeryStation complex in Emeryville, Calif. The 230,000-sf biotech project will house lab and office space in four-stories atop two levels of underground parking. The facility is slated for completion in summer of 2007.

New York City is planning to develop a commercial bioscience park in metropolitan New York. Sited on 4.7 acres on the Bellevue Hospital campus, the $700-million project will provide 870,000 sf of office and laboratory space. Dubbed the East River Science Park, the development will be the largest of its kind in the metropolitan area.