Liberty was chosen from among three finalists. The Liberty/Synterra partnership is developing the park under an agreement with Pennsylvania Industrial Development Corp., and the plan will be created in conjunction with PIDC. While initial plans call for nine "class AA" buildings encompassing up to 1.1-million sf, the addition of a residential component has not been ruled out.

The design team, assembled by Liberty, will develop a master plan for the entire, 600-acre eastern section of the naval base property. New York-based Robert A.M. Stern Architects, designer of Liberty's One Pennsylvania Plaza tower in Center City, heads the design team. Others team members are EDAW, the San Francisco-based design firm; London-based Grimshaw & Associates, and the locally based firms of Kelly/Maiello and Daroff Designs.

Simultaneous with the announcement of Navy Yard Corporate Center, Liberty disclosed that it is breaking ground today on a one-story, 75,200-sf laboratory and biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility, built for and fully leased, long-term, to St. Paul, MN-based AppTec Laboratory Services Inc. "The cost is in excess of $20 million, and our investment is $8.2 million," Gattuso says, "with the tenant paying for the remainder."The AppTec facility is being constructed on a 15-acre parcel of the Naval Base land that is adjacent to the planned Navy Yard Corporate Center. Liberty purchased this parcel from PIDC for $900,000. A second, 75,000-sf AppTec facility for the parcel is on the drawing board.

PIDC is providing AppTec with a $3.8-million loan, which the technology firm will use to purchase equipment for testing medical devices. Additional financial incentives are being offered by the state. Both this project and Navy Yard Corporate Center are in a Keystone Opportunity Zone, making tenants eligible for significant tax abatements.

Innovation Philadelphia, a semi-private partnership devoted to bring tech-based companies to the city, along with the city, the state, PIDC, and Liberty's Gattuso, who once headed its Minnesota office, are credited with luring AppTec to the naval base. According to published reports, about three-quarters of AppTec's employees in the new facility have Ph.D.s or graduate-level degrees in science.

Its selection of Philadelphia is seen by Peter Longstreth, PIDC president, as "a milestone in the renaissance of the Navy Yard . . . reinforcing our city as a center for pharmaceutical research and development."

Instant Insights /

Liberty Lands $150M, 70-Acre Navy Yard Corporate Project

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