While most passersby see only a weedy and thrash-strewn vacant lot, where some people have abandoned cars and others park still functioning ones, Tia Lyles-Williams sees an opportunity for something big in Southwest Philadelphia. “My vision is to create a life sciences park with drug manufacturing, workforce development opportunities and affordable housing,” said Lyles-Williams, the founder and… Read more »
BioInnovation Labs, an incubator of life sciences companies, is expanding by 30,151 square feet at the Curtis, bringing the total amount of space it occupies in the Center City building to 53,529 square feet. Referred to as BioLabs, the company will expand onto the eighth floor of the 12-story building at 601 Walnut St. The… Read more »
The University of Pennsylvania has teamed up with Longfellow Real Estate Partners on a $365 million, 455,000-square-foot life sciences and biomanufacturing building at Pennovation Works. The proposed project at 34th Street and Grays Ferry Avenue is designed with 387,000 square feet of research and lab space that will be in two structures connected by 65,000… Read more »
University City Science Center Board Chairman Mike DiPiano draws a parallel between his organization and Motown. Before the storied music label could start pumping out chart-topping hits, founder Berry Gordy had to build out a physical space to house offices and recording studios. Since its founding in 1963, the Science Center has worked to establish a similar… Read more »
One of the Philadelphia region’s oldest biotechnology companies is doubling its footprint, and its workforce, in the city. Integral Molecular began construction this week on its new 50,000-square scientific and operational headquarters at One uCity Square that will allow the company to expand to 200 employees over the next few years. Founded in 2001, Integral… Read more »
The Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) is looking for partners for what it is billing as a “landmark life sciences development opportunity” in the city. The city’s public-private economic development corporation wants to create a massive cell and gene therapy manufacturing complex across two sites totaling about 40 acres on Southwest Philadelphia’s Lower Schuylkill riverfront…. Read more »
A venture between Tishman Speyer, a New York real estate firm, and Bellco Capital, a Los Angeles investor in life sciences companies, has acquired 2300 Market St. in Center City and plans to develop it into 200,000 square feet of life sciences space. The partnership, Breakthrough Properties, bought three structures that housed the culinary school… Read more »
Vitara Biomedical Inc., a company working on a therapeutic platform to support premature infants, and San Francisco-based Quanta Therapeutics Inc., a biotech focused on therapies for cancer, are among the recent tenants to sign leases at B.Labs, a 50,000-square-foot life sciences incubator at Cira Centre. The leases bring the space to fully occupied. Brandywine Realty… Read more »
Consider these five factors when determining which direction to pursue, advise Justin Brasell and David Klein of Transwestern. Life sciences companies—whether young startups receiving an influx of venture capital or mature entities with a long history in the industry—are setting out in record numbers to find space for developing treatments that advance public health and… Read more »
Exelixis Inc., an Alameda, California, biotechnology company, is establishing a major hub in the Philadelphia area that involves eventually developing a 175,000- to 200,000-square-foot building and hiring several hundred new employees. Referred to as Exelixis East by the company, Exelixis has a temporary base in 23,000 square feet at 640 Freedom Business Center Drive in… Read more »
