Construction has begun on a lab facility in Hyde Park as the city attempts to position itself as a national life sciences hub.
Hyde Park Labs, a $225M facility anchored by the University of Chicago, is being developed by Trammell Crow and Beacon Capital Partners, Crain’s Chicago Business reported. The 302K SF, 14-story building will offer nine floors of Class-A lab and office space, 40K SF of tenant amenities and ground-level retail, and loading space.
Hyde Park Labs is slated to open in late 2024.
“Chicago continues to be a top-10 life science cluster in the U.S., with top national talent rankings for data scientists, chemists, microbiologists and biomedical engineers as well,” said Dan Lyne, senior vice president on the advisory and transaction services team for CBRE, in a statement.
“Chicago’s strong life science employment base, combined with the presence of some of the nation’s top universities, including the University of Chicago, will promote future tenant demand for life science space, especially as this industry continues to be the fastest growing sector in the U.S.”
Chicago ranks 10th nationally among the top 25 life sciences research talent clusters, according to CBRE’s 2022 Life Science Research Talent report. Life sciences have become a keen focus for developers eager to capitalize on the fast-growing asset class — and enjoying the nation’s third-highest concentration of science and engineering graduates from schools like Northwestern University and the University of Illinois.
“Chicago, which has a wealth of science-based resources, such as research hospitals, universities and leading pharma companies, will continue to see industry growth but will, nonetheless, have work to do growing its life sciences ecosystem,” Suzet McKinney, director of life sciences at Sterling Bay, told Bisnow in a September 2022 interview.
To that end, about a half-dozen lab projects are planned in Chicago, including Farpoint’s Bronzeville Lakefront Development and Sterling Bay’s Lincoln Yards. Trammell Crow has completed two lab projects in Fulton Market over the past three years with another underway in Evanston, Crain's reported.
At Hyde Park Labs, 55K SF, the equivalent of 1.5 floors, has been pre-leased by the University of Chicago for its Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and a life sciences startup incubator, according to a news release.
“The University of Chicago is one of the world’s leading academic institutions, renowned for driving innovation across many disciplines, including biosciences and quantum," Beacon Capital Partners President and CEO Fred Seigel said in the release. "We’re proud that through the development of Hyde Park Labs, the University will be able to further support the incubation of early and growth stage companies on the cutting edge of scientific and technological discovery."
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