Engineering Inc. - Winter 2020 - 19

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can foster the long-term relationships that are highly desirable in
this market.
"They begin by providing the incubator space for fledgling
companies to develop their processes and make them commercially viable," Simpler says. "The developer then has the ability
to move them from space to space as they grow and become
more successful."
Part of the success of these market-focused brokers and developers comes from not tying down their tenants to the typical
five-year or longer fixed lease. As a company grows, it can move
to a larger space as needed, which in turn frees up more space
for more incubators as other startups begin the process.
"The developers are basically establishing pipelines to continuously grow and expand these developing firms," Simpler says.
Relatively large and well-known research centers already have
taken root in places including Cambridge, Massachusetts, and
La Jolla, California, and additional clusters are showing up
in a variety of primarily metro areas. Location and access to
transportation are important considerations for such facilities.
Frequently, new biotech research and development clusters are
located in close proximity to medical centers expressly to provide
easier access for medical professionals. The growth in collaboration and cross-disciplinary research also is a factor.

BY TOM KLEMENS

THE NEXT BIG CLUSTER?

SHANE YOUNG PHOTO

GROWING LIFE
AND HEALTH
SCIENCES MARKET
A BOON TO
PRIVATE SECTORFOCUSED FIRMS

discover," says Mitchel Simpler, partner and managing partner
emeritus at Jaros, Baum & Bolles (JB&B) and ACEC chair.
"That means entrepreneurs are flooding the market, looking for
places to start doing their Stage 1 R&D."
As a result, JB&B's project portfolio reflects this increasing
demand: the company currently has five major life science projects underway in the New York area.
As these startups obtain further funding and evolve into real
working capital enterprises, their facility needs also typically
grow. And the market growth has not gone unnoticed by investors and developers. Already private sector research clusters have
sprung up around the world, many of them supported by developers that cater to life science and technology companies. By
developing flexible, appropriately outfitted facilities, developers

One area with the potential for development of a large biotech
presence is New York, which should come as no surprise, given
the available resources and the business environment. For example, the New York Genome Center, which was formed in 2011
and moved to its current location in 2013, has established itself
as one of the world's leading medical research collaborations.
The 170,000-square-foot facility includes numerous research
labs with space available to host principal investigators and their
teams from various member institutions. Already the Genome
Center is attracting additional development to the area, including a 30-incubator life sciences startup named JLABS @ NYC.
"There are a lot of doctors and research companies that are
looking for space to do their experiments," says John Baranello,
principal at Severud Associates. "Until recently that has typically
been at a hospital or in a hospital complex campus setting. But
now they have a private sector, or office, type building that they
can go to and keep to themselves."
Baranello says that facilities being designed for the life sciences
or biotech tenants tend to be not much different than standard
office buildings.
"With one exception: The floor framing systems are more
robust because the vibration criteria are more restrictive," he says.
ABOUT THE DIFFERENCES

Although life science facilities may not be very different in terms
of structural requirements, they are significantly different in
other areas.
"One difference is the amount of infrastructure required,"
Simpler says. "The amount of mechanical and electrical services
that gets put into these buildings is amazing. For the more
advanced laboratory-type life science and biotech facilities, we
essentially are building laboratories which have the primary
WINTER 2020

ENGINEERING INC.

Engineering Inc. - Winter 2020

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