Longfellow to Develop $365M Life Sciences Complex in Philly
Firm acquires 75-year ground lease to build, operate R&D facility at Pennovation Works campus.
Longfellow Real Estate Partners has acquired a 75-year ground lease to develop, finance and operate a new 455K SF life sciences facility on the Pennovation Works campus in Philadelphia.
Pennovation Works, a 23-acre University of Pennsylvania property across the Schuykill River from the university’s core campus, is a former DuPont chemical research facility that was converted in 2016 into the Pennovation Center, and incubator for science and technology startups.
The $365M R&D facility Longfellow will develop is expected to include 387K SF of biotech research space and about 68K SF that will be reserved for biomanufacturing.
The new facility will be designed by architectural firm Jacobs, which is planning to “visually integrate” the design with existing Pennovation Works campus structures, including the 65K SF Pennovation Lab, which opened last year.
Construction on the new building will begin next year and is scheduled to be completed by 2025.
University of Pennsylvania officials said the biomanufacturing space in the facility to be developed by Longfellow will offer the opportunity for biotech companies to remain in Philadelphia in proximity to expanding cell and gene therapy programs at the university.
The new R&D facility also will explore the potential of mRNA—the genetic engineering breakthrough that led to the Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines—as a platform for the creation of new drugs and therapeutics.
The Pennovation Works project is the first Philadelphia life sciences development for Longfellow, which has built life sciences research facilities throughout the US under the slogan “We’ll create the space, you bring the science.” Properties developed by Longfellow include Atrium Labs in Emeryville, CA and the BioPoint Greenhouse in Research Triangle Park in NC.
Philadelphia, along with Boston, has emerged as a leading hub in the exploding field of genomics.
In December, Spark Therapeutics, a member of the Roche Group, unveiled plans for a $575M gene therapy innovation center within Drexel University’s campus in Philadelphia’s University City neighborhood.
The 500K SF gene therapy center will serve as Roche’s global center of excellence for gene therapy manufacturing, in collaboration with Drexel. Construction on the center is expected to begin in Q4 2022.
“As one of the leading biotech hubs in the US, there’s no doubt that Philadelphia will play a crucial role in the advancement of cell and gene therapies,” Roche CEO Severin Schwan said, in a statement announcing the gene therapy innovation center.