Master Planner Selected For $260M Southwest Philly Life Sciences Project
A 6-acre life sciences campus proposed for a city-owned parcel along the Schuylkill River in Southwest Philadelphia is taking a step forward.
The SW Bio Care joint venture tapped Fifteen Architecture + Design as the SW Life Science Park’s master planner and engineering contractor, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported.
The team plans to file a proposal for the parcel near 61st Street and Lindbergh Boulevard with the Philadelphia Land Bank in the first half of next year, LucasPye Bio founder Tia Lyles-Williams, whose firm is part of the JV, told the Philadelphia Business Journal.
Plans for the $260M campus include a new headquarters and an 80K SF processing facility for LucasPye Bio. It would also feature a 150K SF coworking space for HelaPlex, a coworking wet lab space associated with the firm, in addition to retail and light industrial space.
Lyles-Williams first proposed the project in 2022. Getting it to this stage hasn't been easy.
“We've had the challenge of raising funding in this downturn investment climate for life sciences and biotech,” she told the PBJ.
Venture capital funding for Philly-area life sciences companies fell from roughly $2B in 2021 to well under $1B in 2024, according to a Savills report. That figure sits at approximately $75M for the first three quarters of 2025.
The vacancy rate for the sector was 15.9% for the Philly region in Q2, but that figure rose to 25.2% for the city and 34.1% for University City in West Philadelphia, according to CBRE.
Only one of the notable transactions highlighted in Savills' report was in the neighborhood, Cabaletta Bio’s 7,600 SF lease at Brandywine Realty Trust’s Cira Centre. The largest was PCI Pharma Services' 81K SF at 120 Phyllis Drive in Croydon.
The SW Bio Care joint venture also includes commercial real estate firm Urbane Development Group. The team could run into issues with the land bank, which some Philly CRE players have criticized as a barrier to developing vacant land due to politicization and bureaucratic malaise.
