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.
BOSTON — CytoTronics, a life sciences company specializing in cell biology research, has signed a 14,000-square-foot lease in Boston’s Seaport District. The space is located within GENESIS 12 Farnsworth, a 73,000-square-foot former office building. CBRE represented the landlord, Phase 3 Real Estate Partners, in the lease negotiations. The tenant representative was not disclosed.
WILMINGTON, DEL. — Biopharmaceutical giant Merck (NYSE: MRK) has broken ground on a $1 billion pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Wilmington, about 30 miles southwest of Philadelphia. Known as Merck Wilmington Biotech, the 470,000-square-foot project will comprise laboratory, manufacturing and warehouse capabilities. Merck says the center will enable the launch and commercial production of next-generation biologics and therapies. Notably, the facility will be the Rahway, N.J.-based company’s first domestic site for producing cancer treatment drug Keytruda. Reuters reports that the Delaware plant is in effort to expand domestic production as Merck prepares to deal with President Trump’s tariffs. In its first-quarter financial results, Merck estimated that the impact of tariffs imposed so far would lead to additional costs of approximately $200 million for the company in general. Located within the 164-acre, 14-building Chestnut Run Innovation & Science Park (CRISP), the new facility will help foster growth in Wilmington’s biotechnology sector, creating more than 500 full-time roles and roughly 4,000 construction jobs. The laboratory component is expected to be fully operational by 2028, with production of experimental drugs anticipated to start by 2030. Pennsylvania-based developer MRA Groups owns CRISP, which is in the midst of a large-scale repositioning, and MRA Group is …
CHICAGO — Grove Biopharma has leased space for its headquarters and research and development (R&D) lab at 400 North Aberdeen in Chicago’s Fulton Market neighborhood. Trammell Crow Co. (TCC) owns the property, which is part of the Fulton Labs development. Grove Biopharma is a preclinical biotechnology startup that previously operated out of Portal Innovation’s Fulton Labs location. The startup recently closed a $30 million Series A financing round and is now moving into its own space within a 17,000-square-foot Science-Ready Lab suite. “Grove Biopharma is the perfect example of the thesis we planned our Fulton Labs campus around. It’s a company that spun out of Northwestern, then moved to Portal Innovations for incubation and the support ecosystem and is now moving into a large Science-Ready Lab suite to accommodate further growth,” says Morgan Baer Blaska, vice president with TCC Midwest. “In the past, a company on this growth trajectory would have considered moving to one of the coasts, but both Portal and Fulton Labs have provided an environment where science startups can grow and thrive here in Chicago.” Founded in 2020, Grove Biopharma is pioneering its Bionic Biologics platform to develop therapies targeting previously intractable intracellular disease targets. Dan Lyne …
WALTHAM, MASS. — Locally based owner-operator Hobbs Brook Real Estate is underway on the renovation of a 384,841-square-foot office and life sciences facility located at 404 Wyman St. in the western Boston suburb of Waltham. The building is part of an 11-building campus that is home to tenants such as Dassault Systems, FM Global, Commonwealth Financial Network and ZoomInfo. Renovations will include the addition of a new fitness center, a remodeling of lobby and upgrading of the conference center and café. In addition, Hobbs Brook will develop expansive outdoor spaces with seating areas, fire pits and new landscaping. Completion is slated for early next year.
NATICK, MASS. — Regional design-build firm Dacon Corp. has completed a 35,000-square-foot life sciences project in Natick, a western suburb of Boston. The facility is the third in the area for ABI-LAB, a user that provides shared laboratory services for researchers in fields such as immunology, oncology, regenerative medicine, diagnostics and precision medicine. The newest facility houses 10 labs that range in size from 900 to 2,500 square feet and brings ABI-LAB’s total Natick footprint to roughly 112,000 square feet.
SAN DIEGO — Diversified Healthcare Trust, which is managed by The RMR Group, has completed the sale of MUSE, a three-building life sciences campus in San Diego, to Breakthrough Properties for $159 million. Substantially renovated between 2020 and 2022, the 186,000-square-foot asset consists of two fully leased wet lab buildings and one vacant office building. Overall, MUSE is 49 percent leased to Merck, Aegis Life, Organogenesis and Halloran. The renovation included the addition of a fitness center, full-service cafe and an indoor/outdoor conference center. MUSE is located at 3030, 3040 and 3050 Science Park Road in the Torrey Pines submarket of San Diego. JLL Capital Markets Investment Sales and Advisory team led by Kurt Luedkte and Zac Saloff represented the seller. JLL also arranged post-closing financing for the two buildings and will continue to handle leasing for the entire MUSE campus.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Newmark has brokered the sale of a life sciences building located at 359 Allston St. in Cambridge. According to LoopNet Inc., the building was constructed in 1987 and totals 7,517 square feet. The building was renovated in 2022 and was fully leased at the time of sale to Vaxess Technologies. Robert Griffin, Edward Maher, Matthew Pullen, James Tribble, Samantha Hallowell, William Sleeper, Joseph Alvarado and Casey Valente of Newmark represented the undisclosed seller in the transaction and procured the buyer, King Street Properties.