Research and Development

The life sciences industry has become the great hope in real estate, as we face the most significant public health crisis in a century. While other industries have slowed and suffered as a result of sheltering in place and working from home, science facilities have remained operational and even have thrived in prime markets, as the industry continues to search for medical breakthroughs. The downturn in other industries has left buildings vacant. The life science market, on the other hand, continues to experience some of the lowest vacancy and highest employment rates. For life science organizations in the prime U.S. markets, there simply remains a shortage of available research-capable space. Enter the big pivot to science.

Stanford University dedicated the $210 million Biomedical Innovation Building in November of 2020 in Palo Alto, Calif. Designed by ZGF Architects with Research Facilities Design (RFD) as laboratory design consultant, the 190,439-gsf facility strategically collocates investigators with expertise in cardiovascular medicine, pediatrics, orthopaedics, immunotherapy, personalized genomics, otolaryngology, and asthma and allergy.

Matrix Innovation Center broke ground in December of 2020 on the Matrix 1 lab and office complex in Amsterdam. Designed by MVRDV to attain BREEAM Excellent certification, the six-story, 140,000-sf project will utilize demountable construction techniques so that the steel supports and concrete floors can be disassembled at the end of the structure's lifespan, enabling 89 percent of the materials to be reused.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville broke ground on the $55 million Sesquicentennial Hall in November of 2020. Designed by BWBR Architects, the 99,200-sf facility will provide collaborative research and learning environments for programs in engineering, computer science, and sustainable and renewable energy systems (SRES).

The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) opened the £75 million Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery in London in November of 2020. Located in the borough of Sutton, the 78,580-sf facility features team laboratories where biologists, evolutionary scientists, chemists, pharmacologists, data scientists, and clinicians can discover new solutions for cancer evolution and drug resistance.

The University of Oregon dedicated the first phase of the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact in December of 2020 in Eugene. Designed by Ennead Architects and Bora Architects to encourage interaction and collaboration, the $225 million, 160,000-sf building offers leading-edge biomedical laboratories, core facilities, classrooms, and an innovation center.

ApiJect will break ground in December of 2020 on the Gigafactory campus in Durham, N.C. Strategically sited in Research Triangle Park, the complex will be the world’s largest pharmaceutical fill-finish facility, offering an annual production capacity of three billion single-dose prefilled injectors. Funded by a federal loan of $590 million, the one million-sf project will provide BSL-2 manufacturing areas, cold and ultra-cold storage infrastructure, and an onsite needle and cannula factory.

Washington State University opened the $66 million Plant Sciences Building in Pullman in November of 2020. Designed by LMN Architects with Research Facilities Design (RFD) as laboratory design consultant, the 82,476-sf facility provides leading-edge research environments for programs in horticulture, plant biochemistry and pathology, and crop and soil science. Creating a new gateway to the V.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities has attained the world's first WELL Health-Safety Rating for laboratory space at Alexandria LaunchLabs in New York City. Augmenting the center’s existing WELL certification for building design, the WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facilities Operations and Management includes further measures to protect the health of tenants, employees, visitors, and service personnel. Protocols at Alexandria LaunchLabs include:

The University of California, Irvine began construction on a $134 million health sciences complex in October of 2020. Designed by The S/L/A/M Collaborative and HED, the project will enhance synergies between the disciplines of medicine, nursing, population health, and pharmacy to deliver a dynamic pedagogy of team-based care. Supporting an innovative curriculum based on integrative health, the complex is expected to be a national model for the future of interprofessional education.

Iowa State University broke ground in October of 2020 on the $75 million Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (VDL) in Ames. Located on the campus of the College of Veterinary Medicine, the 72,540-sf structure will provide leading-edge labs and testing suites to enable the prevention, detection, and mitigation of animal diseases including avian influenza, African Swine Fever, and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus.

Carleton University began construction in November of 2020 on the CAD$16 million Engineering Design Centre in Ottawa. Enabling undergraduate students to engage in hands-on, experiential learning, the collaborative 25,000-sf facility will provide design studios, workshops bays, instructional venues, meeting rooms, and formal and informal interaction areas. A maker space on the ground floor will accommodate sophisticated equipment including 3D printers, injection molders, and laser and water jet cutters.

The unprecedented health and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is driving many institutions to increase investment in new biocontainment facilities or rapidly pivot to upgrade and repurpose existing containment spaces in an urgent attempt to respond to the crisis. Hundreds of organizations nationwide began applying for grants after the National Institutes for Health (NIH) received $3.6 billion in funding dedicated to COVID-19 research as part of an emergency stimulus bill passed earlier this year. The NIH now has until 2024 to release the funds. Additionally, private donors, non-governmental organizations, and other entities worldwide are providing billions in funding for development of testing and vaccine programs. This surge of financing is expected to fuel a growth in the creation of new biocontainment spaces in the near future and long term. Since designing, building, and commissioning new biocontainment labs is an expensive and time-consuming process, some institutions are electing to upgrade existing BSL-2 facilities to make them BSL-3, while others are choosing to move existing research programs to make room for new pandemic-related initiatives.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison opened the $57.1 million Meat Science and Animal Biologics Discovery Building in November of 2020. Designed by Potter Lawson, the 67,540-gsf facility provides the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences with leading-edge environments for research, teaching, and outreach. The two-story structure houses two technology-rich lecture halls, a shared research lab, an expansive atrium, demonstration areas, conference rooms, faculty offices, and a retail meat store.

The University of Massachusetts Medical School is planning to construct the $325 million New Education and Research Building in Worcester. Accommodating 77 principal investigators, the nine-story, 350,000-sf facility will include space for animal research as well as housing an FDA-compliant manufacturing center for clinical trial therapeutics. The project will enable UMass to increase its class sizes help meet the needs of the commonwealth and the nation for physicians, graduate nurses, life sciences researchers, and other health sciences professionals.