Developer Joel Marcus says that his brand new 310,000-square-foot bioscience tower in New York should be full by the end of the year, leaving him ready to push ahead on two more big biopharma complexes with a combined 820,000 square feet. So far, only Eli Lilly has announced plans to move into the Alexandria Center for Life Science-New York City, which is at East 29th and First Avenue, but Marcus is bullish about announcing new tenants as he blueprints nearly $700 million worth of new building projects.
The New York Times aptly notes that despite being home to some of the world's top research institutions, New York has never been able to build a biopharma hub like Boston or San Diego. Now Marcus and the developers of BioBAT at the Brooklyn Army Terminal are taking a "build it and they will come" approach.
"For other biotechs looking for space, to get this kind of big, open space that you can build out, it's a fabulous opportunity," Michael Caulfield, the executive director of the I.A.V.I. AIDS Vaccine Design and Development Laboratory, tells the Times. "We're pretty self-contained, but it would be nice if there were other biotech companies or start-ups in this building or area." The lab neighbors BioBAT, where no tenants have signed on--yet.
- read the NYT article