Taconic Investment Partners and Silverstein Properties, joint venture owners of The Hudson Research Center at 619 West 54th Street, have signed a lease with HiberCell, a newly launched biotechnology company developing therapeutics focused on preventing cancer relapse and metastasis.
HiberCell will occupy a 15,000 s/f pre-built wet lab and office suite on the building’s 8th floor, which is under construction and expected to be completed in April.
The space is part of the developers’ larger initiative to create over 100,000 s/f of research space in the building over the next two years.
The development of The Hudson Research Center aligns with the city’s ongoing initiatives to expand Manhattan’s life sciences sector in an effort to compete with industry-leading cities such as Boston and San Francisco.
In 2016, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a $500 million initiative called LifeSci NYC to boost the life sciences industry in New York City. Additionally, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a $650 million plan to encourage development of the life science sector statewide.
“The building’s current portfolio of tenants, supportive infrastructure for scientific research, development efforts and prime location in the heart of Manhattan’s thriving West Side have proven to be very attractive to prospective research companies,” said Marty Burger, CEO of Silverstein Properties. “We believe in the building’s ability to serve as the future hub for biotech companies in New York City.”
HiberCell is a New York City-based biotechnology company that is the first of its kind to focus on dormant disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) and their role in cancer relapse. After securing over $60 million in Series A funding, the company is developing a pipeline of therapies to treat DTCs from solid and liquid cancers.
“To address the strong demand from early stage research companies, Taconic and Silverstein have developed a concept for plug-and-play wet labs and collaborative office environments that can be easily adapted by tenants to meet their specialized research needs,” said Matthew Weir, Senior Vice President at Taconic.
“This model was successful at attracting HiberCell, an exciting new venture with research coming out of a NYC-based academic institution. We are thrilled to have HiberCell as a key tenant within the growing hub at The Hudson Research Center and look forward to supporting their research efforts.” HiberCell’s investment syndicate was led by ARCH Venture Partners and other investment firms. Taconic and
Silverstein have also announced the launch of Phase II of construction which will include up to 100,000 s/f of additional wet lab and office spaces.
The pre-built, flexible suites are targeted at early-stage research companies and consist of flexible, modular and adaptable research labs and modern collaborative office environments.
Current tenants at The Hudson Research Center include the New York Stem Cell Foundation, which opened their 42,000 s/f, state-of-the-art stem cell research facility in 2017.
HiberCell was represented by Adam Leshowitz and David Stockel of CBRE while the landlord was represented by Steve Purpura, Jonathan Schifrin, and Alessio Tropeano of CBRE. The wet lab and office spaces are being designed by Perkins+Will Architects and engineered by BR+A Consulting Engineers.
