Biotechnology

Ground has been broken on a new 170,000-sf research laboratory and office facility in St. Louis for the Center of Research, Technology and Entrepreneurial Exchange (CORTEX), a non-profit collaboration of Washington University, St. Louis University, The Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation, and the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Designed by HOK, the $36 million project incorporates sustainable design principles and will pursue LEEDTM  certification from the U.S.

Genentech has signed a lease for 780,000 sf in South San Francisco, which may be the largest single lease ever penned in the northern California Bay Area. Developer Slough Estates will construct the three-, four-, and eight-story life science facilities in two phases over the next four years. Construction cost is estimated at approximately $325 million. The project will consist of roughly 40 percent office and 60 percent laboratory space.

FivePrime Therapeutics will sublease an entire floor in the new 190,000-sf J. David Gladstone Institutes building at Mission Bay in San Francisco. The Gladstone building was dedicated on December 6, 2004. The facility will enable FivePrime to develop new protein and antibody therapeutics utilizing an accelerated drug discovery approach. FivePrime will relocate its South San Francisco operations to the Gladstone building in San Francisco, a city which has a payroll tax exemption for biotech companies. 

The University of Pennsylvania has selected Skanska USA Building to construct the new Skirkanich Hall Bioengineering Building in Philadelphia. Skirkanich Hall will be approximately 63,000 sf and will include labs, classrooms, offices, and support facilities that will be connected to the Moore and Towne buildings on campus. Work also includes renovations within the two buildings to accommodate the tie-ins, as well as infrastructure improvements.

Design of Roche Diagnostic 's new 440,000-sf PCR Manufacturing Center in Branchburg, N.J., is nearing completion. PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) is leading-edge technology in the field of molecular diagnostics. The facility will include a new state-of-the-art 230,000-sf pharmaceutical manufacturing center, a 32,000-sf office building (completed), and the renovation of a 180,000-sf existing laboratory and office headquarters for Roche Molecular Systems. The manufacturing facility is slated for completion in November 2004.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore has issued a request for proposals to develop the second building on its bioscience campus in downtown Baltimore. Construction on the 110,000-sf facility is expected to begin in spring 2005. Construction of a 600-car parking garage at the site is slated to begin by the end of October 2004. Buildout on the first 120,000-sf building on the bioscience campus, housing office and lab space, will be completed by summer 2005. 

Boston University Medical Center, Boston University, and the city of Boston celebrated the topping off of the eight-story BioSquare 3 in Boston in September 2004. Being the third lab and research facility on the 14-acre campus, the 160,000-sf building is 60 percent pre-leased to Boston University and Boston University Medical Center. Completion is expected in fall 2005.

Genentech is planning to develop up to 600,000 sf of offices and labs on 20 acres to be purchased in Oyster Point near its South San Francisco headquarters. Genentech currently occupies 33 facilities in South San Francisco, and has applied with the city to expand its 72-acre campus to 111 acres.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute opened the $80 million, 218,000-sf Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies on its Troy, N.Y., campus on September 10, 2004. The facility will accommodate research in drug synthesis, tissue repair and replacement, and biosensors and monitoring. Including 67,000-sf of lab and lab support space and 104,000-sf of public and administrative space, the four-story facility was designed by architects Burt Hill and Bohlin Cywinkski Jackson.

Montgomery College has selected Foulger-Pratt to develop a potential $150 million life science and technology park on its Germantown, Md., campus. With a focus on developing wet lab space, the 35-acre parcel will house 700,000 sf to 800,000 sf of offices and lab space. The estimated development cost is between $100 million and $150 million; completion of the first phase is slated for early 2007. A technology incubator will be developed on a five acre section of the site.

Fremont, Calif.-based Protein Design Labs has opened a 210,000-sf commercial-scale biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Brooklyn Park , Minn. The facility will produce humanized monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of conditions including cancer and inflammatory diseases.

Protein Design Labs opened a new 210,000-sf biopharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Brooklyn Park , Minn., on July 22, 2004 . The facility will start producing monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of medical conditions by 2007.

Electron microscope maker FEI Corp. has opened its enhanced Eindhoven , Netherlands, campus, featuring the “NanoPort," a state-of-the-art product and applications center. Providing space for collaborative R&D projects, such as the European Union’s Interaction Proteome Project, the NanoPort accommodates scientists working in the disciplines of biotechnology, materials science, structural biology, proteomics, pathology, and semiconductors and data storage. The facility houses a range of transmission and scanning electron microscopes, as well as ion beam and dual-beam systems.

MedImmune’s new 220,000-sf administrative headquarters and R&D complex in Gaithersburg, Md., was awarded “Best Biotech Office” and “Best Interiors-Commercial Space” by the Maryland/DC chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties in June 2004. The facility, designed by HOK Architects of St. Louis and developed by Quadrangle Development of D.C., was occupied by MedImmune in March 2004. The headquarters features a common area designed to foster interaction and collaboration.

Growing biotech company Gilead is expanding with the lease of 140,000 sf located next to its 500,000-sf headquarters in Foster City, Calif. Located in Vintage Park, the facility was previously slated as Webvan ’s headquarters. The building will accommodate additional office and research space.