A 40-acre hospital, bioscience education and research complex in Germantown run by Montgomery College is looking for developers to help it cash in on Montgomery County's booming life sciences market.

The Pinkney Innovation Complex for Science and Technology at Montgomery College plans to put out a request for proposals in the coming weeks for a developer to partner on a 150K SF bioscience office building.

The campus, called PIC MC for short, features the Holy Cross Germantown Hospital, a 145K SF bioscience educational building and the Germantown Innovation Center, a 32K SF business incubator with 24 startup companies. It is one of the three campuses of Montgomery College, a community college with locations in Rockville and Takoma Park/Silver Spring.

The site is zoned specifically for life sciences. The new building would include lab space and accomodate bio manufacturing, research and tech companies. PIC MC Executive Director Martha Schoonmaker said the college wants private companies on its campus to provide opportunities for its students and to create a talent pipeline for the businesses.

"We have companies in the Germantown Innovation Center that are growing and need a place to grow into," Schoonmaker said. "Our intent is that they can stay here on this campus and grow in commercial space."

The campus sits along I-270, a corridor that has become a hub for the life sciences industry in recent years. Its 10M SF inventory of lab space has a vacancy around 4%, according to a recent JLL report, significantly lower than the area's traditional suburban office space. Schoonmaker believes the area's colleges and universities, in addition to the presence of federal agencies and a highly educated workforce, have contributed to the corridor's success.

"It's a combination of having smart people, having the right institutions here, having the educational resources, the people resources and the space resources available in Montgomery County," Schoonmaker said.

Schoonmaker will discuss PIC MC and the county's life sciences market at Bisnow's Future of Montgomery County event Jan. 24 at Park Potomac.