Alexandria Real Estate Equities is set to start work on a 550,000 s/f addition to its New York life sciences campus.
The company announced a final agreement with the de Blasio Administration to start the third phase of development of its Alexandria Center for Life Science in Kips Bay, also known as the North Tower.
The Alexandria Center is the City’s first collaborative campus for life sciences research and development and commercialization.
Construction of the North Tower will complete the campus, which currently comprises the East and West Towers, resulting in nearly 1.3 million square feet of commercial laboratory facilities, pre-built space for emerging companies, flexible office space, and amenities for life science research and development tenants.
The proposed 550,000 s/f facility will serve as a resource to the City’s emerging life sciences industry and is expected to foster innovative collaborations among world-class academic and commercial institutions, provide commercial laboratory and office space for growth-stage life science companies, and include more than 1,466 jobs.
Construction is anticipated to get underway in 2020, with expected completion by 2022.
“The Alexandria Center for Life Science currently provides best-in-class space to an abundance of life sciences companies looking to continue innovating and growing here in New York City,” said NYCEDC President and CEO James Patchett.
“Once complete, the North Tower will add an additional 500,000 square feet of wet lab and office space to the campus, building on the growing momentum of the City’s life science cluster and supporting the creation of nearly 1,500 quality jobs.”
“Our focus for the North Tower, which fits very well with the goals set forth by the NYCEDC and Mayor de Blasio’s administration, will be to further expand Alexandria’s innovative proprietary product offerings in the New York City life science cluster,” said John H. Cunningham, executive vice president and New York City regional market director at Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.
“We plan to equip the new North Tower with a combination of office and laboratory step-up space in a highly curated and sustainable environment designed to meet the needs of early-stage companies spinning out of world-class academic and medical institutions, which comprise the majority of demand in New York City.”
In 2005, New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and NYC Health + Hospitals selected Alexandria, the country’s largest owner, operator, and developer of collaborative life science campuses, to develop and operate three buildings dedicated to the life sciences in Kips Bay, Manhattan.
Alexandria completed construction of the first two towers at the Alexandria Center in 2010 and 2013, which are now fully leased up.
Located at 29th Street and 1st Avenue, the Alexandria Center currently offers more than 728,000 s/f of commercial laboratories, office space, a restaurant, café, conference center, gym, an urban farm, and underground parking. Over 50 tenants occupy space in both facilities, including Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYC HQ), Eli Lilly, the Roche Translational and Clinical Research Center, Accelerator Life Science Partners and Cellectis in the West Tower.
Tenants in the East Tower include Pfizer’s Center for Therapeutic Innovation, NYU Langone, Petra Pharma, BlueRock Therapeutics and Kadmon.
With more than 100 research foundations and nine academic medical centers, New York City is home to one of the largest concentrations of academic life sciences research in the world. However, challenges such as the shortage of commercial laboratory space have made it hard to retain high-growth life science companies. The Alexandria Center has disrupted that trend.
The de Blasio administration made a $500 million commitment to establish New York City as a leader in life sciences R&D and innovation through LifeSci NYC, which launched in 2016.
NYCEDC has created a $300 million discretionary tax abatement incentive program and is modernizing the City’s land use policy to facilitate life sciences real estate development.
As part of LifeSci NYC, the City has awarded a $5 million grant to fund approximately 50,000 s/f of new incubator lab space, approved a $10 million fund to help NYC companies expand and launched an internship program to train the next generation of life sciences talent.
