By: Benyamin Davidsons
As life sciences gains speed as a major sector in New York City, a new lab-ready office building is being constructed in Jersey City to cater to the industry.
As reported by Crain’s NY, life sciences architecture firm SGA will construct the first lab-ready building. The 8-story building will boast 340,000-square-feet of office space for the growing sector, which includes green tech, food tech, pharmaceuticals, and medicine. The building, located at 95 Greene St., was originally a Palmolive factory, which was converted into a Merrill Lynch data center. It will be about to fit up to 25 tenants that require both office and lab space. SGA said, they already know who their first tenant will be – Fork & Good, a cell-grown-meat company.
SGA and its client declined to disclose the cost of the project. CBRE estimates that building life sciences labs usually costs around $440 per square foot, which would make this building’s estimated cost about $150 million. Brooks Slocum, principal at SGA, said the life sciences building’s prime NYC location is strategic. “Tenants all want to be in town,” Slocum said. “They don’t want to be in suburban areas anymore.” He noted that more life science companies are trying to move into urban areas, so that they can be closer to venture- capital sources and draw in talented candidates for their office teams.
SGA does architecture for science buildings across the Northeast states, and Slocum noted that companies in the industry must network in order to reel in talent, attract funders and find markets. “These types of facilities don’t stand alone,” he said. “You need them all to work for the market to expand.”
A June report from the New York City Economic Development Corp., said that the metropolitan area is “leading the country on jobs and funding in the life sciences industry.” The report detailed that the industry provides roughly 150,000 jobs and 5,100 businesses that paid in excess to $23 billion in wages in 2021. San Francisco and Boston trail closely behind NYC for the sector. NYC has announced that it will invest about $1 billion in the industry, as part of its LifeSci NYC initiative.
LifeSci NYC, led by New York City Economic Development Corporation is a $1 billion endeavor to create 40,000 new jobs, establish NYC as the global leader in life sciences and deliver dozens of new cures and treatments. Some $530 million will be spent on lab and incubator space construction, $450 million will go towards new research, and the remaining $20 million will go toward building a diverse pipeline of talent in the city. It includes paid quality internship programs for students.
“Our city’s recovery depends on building an economy that’s strong and inclusive today and will continue to be for the next generation—and the life sciences industry is a perfect example of how New York City is leading the way,” said Mayor Eric Adams. “Working with our partners across the region, we are making the smart investments to create jobs and opportunity for New Yorkers while encouraging scientific progress that benefits people across the country and the world.”
