Biotechnology

Developer JTC Corp. broke ground in April of 2008 on the $100 million Biopolis III building in Singapore. The 41,500-sm facility will consist of two buildings accommodating biomedical research and incubator space. Completion is slated for the fourth quarter of 2009. Crescendas Bionix will occupy at least 50 percent of the facility. A construction start date for the 30,000-sm Biopolis IV has yet to be announced. Biopolis, a biomedical research and development park, is located at One-North in Buona Vista.

St. Louis-based Monsanto is planning to construct a seed corn facility on 150 acres near Independence, Iowa. Slated for completion in 2010, the production plant is part of a $230 million expansion of Monsanto’s Iowa operations to support increasing demand for the company’s DeKalb seed corn. Production facilities in Boone and Grinnell are also being expanded, and Monsanto has increased office and laboratory space at its global breeding research campus in Ankeny.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore dedicated Building Two at its BioPark development in April of 2008. The six-story, 238,000-sf research facility will house tenants including the Institute for Genome Services, Gliknik, Paragon Bioservices, Westat, and the 38,000-sf Baltimore City Community College’s Bioscience Institute. The first two BioPark buildings were developed by Wexford Science & Technology. UMB broke ground on Building Three in spring of 2008. BioPark’s $500 million, 1.2 million-sf campus will be comprised of ten buildings upon completion.

The $60 million HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology will officially open in the Cummings Research Park in Huntsville, Ala. in April of 2008. Housing 12 for-profit companies and 900 employees, the facility will support Alabama’s high tech, biotech, and clinical research industries to address a variety of diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative diseases. Designed by Cooper Carry, the 270,000-sf project is the cornerstone of the 150-acre CRP Biotech Campus.

Roche Molecular Diagnostics (RMD) opened a $57.5 million research facility at its global headquarters campus in Pleasanton, Calif., on April 3, 2008. Designed by DES Architects + Engineers to meet LEED sustainable design criteria, the project will enable RMD to complete the consolidation of its West Coast operations. The 135,000-sf facility was built by DPR Construction and features molecular biology and core support laboratories.

Indiana University’s Simon Hall received “High Honors” in the 2008 R&D Magazine Lab of the Year competition. The new multidisciplinary science building is located on the Bloomington campus and was designed by Flad Architects. The six-story, 140,000-sf project is sited at the intersection of the departments of chemistry, biology, and biochemistry and houses flexible laboratories, technical support areas, and analytical instrument facilities.

Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies (TPIMS) initiated construction in February of 2008 on a $40 million, 100,000-sf headquarters facility in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Comprised of office and laboratory space, the project is being built by Suffolk Construction in the Florida Center for Innovation at Tradition. The 189-employee building is slated to open in 2009 and will house $9 million in equipment. The project will seek LEED certification for sustainable design and construction.

The University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine is planning a 1.4 million-sf life science park in Miami, Fla. Sited on 7.2 acres, the development will foster advances in translational research by building partnerships between private biotech and biomedical companies and University researchers. The project was in the design phase in January of 2008 with initial construction expected to begin in 2010.

The Georgia Institute of Technology is constructing the $80 million Marcus Nanotechnology Building in Atlanta. Ground was broken on the project, which houses the NRCB (Nanotechnology Research Center Building) cleanrooms, in August of 2006 with completion slated for summer of 2008. The project is comprised of five stories of laboratory and office space and a 30,000-sf, three-level cleanroom.

Palm Beach Community College (PBCC) opened the 91,000-sf BioScience Technology Complex in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. in January of 2008. Featuring state-of-the-art laboratories to support the college’s associate's degree in biotechnology, the project will enable students to acquire the skills required by local employers such as Scripps Research Institute. The $15 million facility also houses a wellness center, a lecture hall, and meeting rooms. PBCC is also constructing a $9.2 million, 50,000-sf science building on its Lake Worth campus.

Needham, Ma.-based environmental engineering and consulting firm EH&E has authored a free white paper titled “Biosafety Review Key to Infection Control”. Aiming to help technicians and safety personnel to minimize risk of laboratory infection, the paper outlines strategies for compliance with NIH, CDC, OSHA, and BMBL guidelines.

Download the paper on EH&E website (registration required)

The University of Colorado is planning to construct the 260,000-sf Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Center in Boulder. Funded in part by a $20 million donation from faculty biochemistry professor and Amgen founder Marvin Caruthers, the $115 million multidisciplinary facility will bring together biologists, computer scientists, engineers, chemists, and physicists. The project is part of the University’s Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology.

The North Carolina Community College System dedicated the BioNetwork Capstone Center in September of 2007. The biopharmaceutical training facility is located in the 82,500-sf Golden LEAF BTEC building on NCSU’s Centennial campus in Raleigh. The BioNetwork Capstone Center will train second-year biotechnology community college students as well as providing continuing education to industry employees.

Genzyme broke ground on a $150 million expansion of its Allston Landing manufacturing facility in Boston in September of 2007. The project will enable Genzyme to expand its workforce with 90 additional employees. Comprised of 86,000 sf of new office and manufacturing support space and a 26,000-sf underground cogeneration facility, the project will seek LEED certification for sustainable design and construction practices. The project team includes ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge with Turner Construction as general contractor.

Monsanto Company completed construction of its $21 million, 40,000-sf data center in Creve Coeur, Mo. in September of 2007. The 40,000-sf facility, supporting the company’s global data and computation needs, began construction in early 2006. It is capable of withstanding up to 200 mile-per-hour winds and earthquakes up to 5.0 on the Richter scale. Monsanto expects to receive LEED certification for the facility, making it the first LEED certified data center in the state.