At a community event Thursday night in which developers outlined plans for Chicago's $6 billion Lincoln Yards project, more details about the site’s biotech lab space were revealed.
Lincoln Yards is a Sterling Bay project that aims to turn 55 acres along the north branch of the Chicago River into a neighborhood with high-rise living, commercial office space and retail.
The upcoming eight-story life sciences building will be home to emerging Chicago biotech and health care companies, Sterling Bay developers said during the Zoom event hosted by the Sheffield Neighborhood Association and Ald. Brian Hopkins for Lincoln Park and Bucktown residents.
The building, designed by Gensler, will sit on West Concord Place in Bucktown and take up 320,000 square feet. The project aims to attract and retain growing biotech companies and foster job creation in Chicago.
“Chicago’s medical research community is growing rapidly, and there is demand for high-quality lab space,” said Fred Krol, senior counsel for Sterling Bay, at the event. “This site is proof of that, and we’re excited to grow this portion of our portfolio.”
Chicago’s biotech industry has grown in recent years, with local cancer-fighting company Tempus being the city’s most-valuable startup at $8 billion. Other emerging biotech and healthcare companies include Cancer IQ, Higi and ExplORer Surgical.
The update on the upcoming life sciences building comes soon after Sterling Bay announced a new business incubator in December for companies specializing in life science, health care and technology at its Prysm Institute in Lincoln Park. The Institute, at 2430 N. Halsted St., opened last year and is currently housing three Chicago biotech companies, Krol said. This site was previously owned by Lurie Children’s Hospital.
Led by Executive Director James Gillespie, the Institute says it is working to attract companies led by entrepreneurs of color and women.
“This initiative is not only to provide invaluable resources for these companies that are existing and those that are on the cusp of emerging, but particularly [for] companies of color and that are led by women,” said Keiana Barrett, Sterling Bay’s director of diversity and strategic development.
Construction on the Lincoln Yards life sciences building and other infrastructure projects is expected to begin this year. Work on building a new Dominick Street Bridge and extending the Bloomingdale Trail east of the Kennedy Expressway is also expected to start in 2021, the developers said.
The Lincoln Yards project has been a controversial development since it was introduced. Activists, residents and local businesses have criticized the project out of gentrification concerns and for the amount of subsidies the developers have received from the city.
In 2019, City Council approved $1.6 billion in subsidies for Lincoln Yards and The 78, a separate project in the South Loop.
“Thirty-three of my colleagues on the Chicago City Council voted in a public, transparent manner to support this project, and they only did so after a spirited, robust, public debate,” said Ald. Hopkins during the event. “Thinking back to every one of the conversations that I had during that time period with my colleagues and fellow alderman, every conversation, without exception, was at its core a struggle to determine what is the best interests of the city of Chicago.”
Hopkins said he supports the project because of the public infrastructure it will provide.
“It’s needed. It’s necessary. It’s something that the community wants,” Hopkins said. “I couldn’t see a better way to deliver it.”
Other previously discussed plans for the Lincoln Yards project include a new school and library, but specific timelines for those projects are still unclear.
Sterling Bay developers said Lincoln Yards will create 23,000 permanent jobs and more than 10,000 construction jobs, and take about 10 years to complete.
