Malls, office space, and now fast-food outlets: As the nation’s booming biotech sector looks for more space after a year of record fundraising, developers are looking at creative new opportunities for conversions and property acquisitions.

In the case of a lot near Seattle’s Space Needle, developers saw a 32-year-old McDonald’s as a perfect opportunity to add supersized lab space.

Developer Lincoln Property Co. will soon break ground at the site at 222 Fifth Ave. N., with plans for an eight-story, 188K SF lab project designed by Gensler, the Puget Sound Business Journal reports. The McDonald's closed earlier this month.

Lincoln Property paid $42M for the site last year, acquiring it from Seattle firm Da Li Development, which entitled the land after acquiring the site for $13.6M in 2019.

The project exemplifies the strong demand for lab space in Seattle, especially in hot submarkets such as South Lake Union, which is just northeast of the forthcoming tower. A recent CBRE report found there was 1.2M SF of demand in the market in Q3 2021.