TOPEKA, KAN. — Construction has begun on Link Innovation Labs, an 18,000-square-foot innovation incubator in downtown Topeka. Formerly corporate offices for AT&T, the redevelopment project is set to open in January 2026 and will feature wet and dry labs, coworking areas, conference rooms, offices and a coffee shop. The first tenant is Plug and Play Topeka, a launchpad for startups in animal health, ag-tech and food systems. Eight wet and dry labs will total roughly 7,500 square feet. A pitch and event area will span 2,500 square feet and will be dedicated to networking, presentations, conferences and public training events. Link Innovation Labs has $5 million committed from public and private sources. GO Topeka is leading the project. Topeka is centrally located within the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor, the world’s largest concentration of animal health companies and related industries.
Life Sciences
BOSTON — Related Beal, the Boston office of Related Cos., has topped out construction of Leiden Center II at Innovation Square, a 345,000-square-foot life sciences project in Boston. The 1.8-acre site is located within Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park in the Seaport District, and the seven-story building, which represents Phase III of the larger Innovation Square development, is fully preleased to Vertex Pharmaceuticals. A consortium of lenders consisting of Santander Bank, Ullico, LBBW and Washington Capital provided construction financing for the project, in which Basis Investment Group is an equity investor. Completion is slated for early 2027. The project is expected to generate as many as 700 construction jobs and approximately 500 permanent jobs for the city.
NEW YORK CITY — Biotechnology firm Cresilon has signed a 55,000-square-foot life sciences lease expansion at Industry City in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park area. Cresilon, which focuses on hemostatic technologies that improve wound care, is effectively doubling its headquarters footprint at the 6 million-square-foot mixed-use development via a 10-year deal. Josh Pernice of CBRE represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. Jeff Fein internally represented the landlord, a partnership between Belvedere Capital, Jamestown and Angelo Gordon.
LISLE, ILL. — Greenstone Partners has brokered the $5.4 million sale of 2375 Cabot Drive, a 37,000-square-foot life sciences building in the Chicago suburb of Lisle. The headquarters property is fully leased to the Water Quality Association (WQA), a nonprofit trade organization that serves the residential, commercial and industrial water treatment industry. WQA signed a 12.5-year lease in 2020 that features annual rent escalations between 3 and 4.5 percent. Both the tenant and the landlord collectively invested more than $5 million into the property. Jason St. John of Greenstone represented the seller, a Chicago-based developer and owner, and procured the buyer, an out-of-state private investor.
THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS — Bionova Scientific, a California-based biologics and pharmaceutical company, has opened a new life sciences facility in The Woodlands, about 30 miles north of Houston, according to reports from multiple local new sources such as the Houston Business Journal and Community Impact Newspaper. The former publication reports that the facility is valued at approximately $100 million and would be “used for plasmid DNA and viral vector manufacturing, which plays a role in cell and gene therapy.” Bionova announced the project in summer 2024.
BURLINGTON, MASS. — Newmark has brokered the sale of Burlington BioCenter, a 109,085-square-foot life sciences building located on the northwestern outskirts of Boston. Originally completed in 2019 with its interior laboratory build-outs finalized in 2022, the building features high-performance laboratory infrastructure and HVAC systems, a backup power source and dedicated loading areas, as well as a two-story lobby. Robert Griffin, Edward Maher, Matthew Pullen, James Tribble, Samantha Hallowell and William Sleeper of Newmark brokered the deal. The buyer and seller were not disclosed.
SMITHFIELD, R.I. — Organogenesis Holdings Inc., a provider of regenerative medicines, has signed a 123,000-square-foot life sciences lease in Smithfield, a northwestern suburb of Providence. Organogenesis will occupy the entirety of the biomanufacturing facility at 100 Technology Way. Robert Coughlin and Bobby Jangro of JLL represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. Mark Winters and Tyler McGrail of Newmark represented the landlord, The Davis Cos., which bought the property in February 2023.
Georgia Tech Repositions Biltmore Building in Midtown Atlanta as Strategic Hub in Tech Square
by John Nelson
ATLANTA — The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) has launched The Biltmore at Tech Square, a 286,931-square-foot mixed-use building located within the larger 2.5 million-square-foot Tech Square innovation district of Midtown Atlanta. The Biltmore building originally opened in 1924 as a grand hotel before transitioning to office space in the 1990s. The property housed the first radio station in Atlanta. Georgia Tech purchased the property in 2016. The school has tapped Collaborative Real Estate, helmed by David Tyndall, an original co-developer of Tech Square, to oversee the Biltmore’s redevelopment. The reimagined Biltmore houses more than 100,000 square feet of Georgia Tech’s innovation sector, including the CREATE-X headquarters (Georgia Tech’s flagship student startup accelerator); Quadrant-i (Georgia Tech’s gateway for launching research-driven ventures); Office of Technology Licensing; VentureLab (home of the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps Southeast hub); Startup Scaling Platform; Corporate Engagement Office; and the Venture Investment Hub, as well as additional strategic partners. “Atlanta is becoming the startup capital of the South, and this next chapter for The Biltmore strengthens our momentum,” says Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. “We are bringing together the people, places and resources to accelerate Atlanta’s growth as a world-class tech and innovation ecosystem.” Upon completion, …
HOPKINTON, MASS. — JLL has arranged the refinancing of a 198,336-square-foot manufacturing facility in the western Massachusetts suburb of Hopkinton. The loan amount was not disclosed. The two-building facility sits on 19 acres at 68-78 Elm St. and was fully leased at the time of the loan closing to life sciences and diagnostics company Revvity. Andrew Gray, Ryan Parker and Brooke Howard of JLL arranged the loan through an undisclosed commercial bank on behalf of the borrower, locally based investment firm NorthBridge Partners.
WILMINGTON, DEL. — Drug development and clinical research company QPS will undertake an office and life sciences expansion project within Delaware Technology Park in Wilmington, an initiative that is valued at roughly $16.6 million and is expected to add about 135 new jobs to the local economy. QPS is already the largest tenant within Delaware Technology Park and currently occupies all of the building at 3 Innovation Way and 90 percent of the building at 1 Innovation Way. The company plans to lease an additional 55,515 square feet of space, including more than 15,000 square feet of lab space, in a new building at 6 Innovation Way. QPS currently employs 336 full-time employees in Delaware.
Newer Posts