Cambridge Innovation Center plans to spend more than $11 million to double its lab space at 3675 Market St. in uCity Square, creating what it says will be one of the largest shared laboratory hubs in the country.
The expansion will result in the addition of more than 200 lab benches, up from the 200 already at the site that is home to nearly two dozen life sciences companies and about 50 co-working tenants.
"We are doubling down, literally, on our lab infrastructure in Philly in response to enormous demand there," said Tim Rowe, CEO of the Massachusetts-based Cambridge Innovation Center, which is known as CIC. "Philadelphia is emerging as a stronger and stronger place to build a life sciences company. … We saw Philadelphia was our strongest facility during the pandemic. You can imagine the demand will be even higher when things return to pre-pandemic life."
Sarah Morin, interim general manager of CIC Philadelphia and vice president of CIC’s North American centers, said the labs at its Philadelphia building — where tenants include Carisma Therapeutics, Century Therapeutics, CSL Behring, Aro Biotherapeutics, Cabaletta Bio and Spirovant Sciences — have remained at 100% occupancy through the Covid-19 outbreak.
“The need for additional benches to serve scientists at every level is undeniable," Morin said. "Three-quarters of our existing lab clients are on our waiting list for additional space.”
CIC operates nine innovation campuses in the United States, Europe and Asia. The company entered the Philadelphia market in 2018 as one of the anchors of 3675 Market, part of the growing uCity Square knowledge and innovation community being developed and fostered by Wexford Science & Technology and its partners, the University City Science Center and Ventas Inc.
At 3675 Market, CIC leased 137,000 square feet that it built out as co-working and incubator space, providing flexible labs and other support space to entrepreneurial startups and other companies. The lab portion of its space currently totals 44,000 square feet, which will grow to 88,000 square feet with the expansion.
The expansion calls for converting the third and seventh floors, which total about 50,000 square feet, into labs. CIC currently uses those two floors as office space.
The project will include the introduction of graduation labs and allow CIC to increase its private lab spaces. The new graduation labs will be designed to provide spaces with 15 to 30 benches to support larger companies. The overall expansion will increase the number of small, medium, and large private labs available to tenants.
Rowe said he believes the expansion will be a "game changer in the ecosystem" of the region's life sciences industry by providing "a critical bridge for companies" as they scale to support their own space.
"If you look back three years ago, Wexford and our partners here have always been talking about the importance of not only building a development but creating a robust knowledge community that drives diversity and creates opportunities that are broad and inclusive," said John Grady, senior vice president at Wexford.
To that end, the building at 3675 Market has been curated to provide an environment that cultivates various aspects and stages of an entrepreneur and their business, and CIC is an integral part of that, Grady said. "We saw their expertise in engaging and supporting entrepreneurs and accelerating their businesses as a really important step," he said. "I think it was underappreciated how impactful that could be."
CIC's life sciences tenants in Philadelphia have raised more than $1.6 billion from investors, created more than 240 jobs, and secured more than 65 patents.
"We think the doubling in size of this is a validation of the growth that has occurred and it’s a signal for what we think is still to come here," Grady said.
The expansion of CIC enhances University City's place as a destination for life sciences companies. There are other burgeoning life sciences hubs throughout the region where bio manufacturing and lab work is being done and they include the Philadelphia Navy Yard, King of Prussia, Doylestown, Exton and Spring House. Many landlords are pursuing conversions of their office buildings into life sciences space.
New developments that would cater to life sciences companies that are in the works include the former Budd Co. plant and the former Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery where Hilco Redevelopment Partners plans to build lab and manufacturing space in addition to industrial buildings. Wexford, Brandywine Realty Trust, University Place Associates and other real estate firms are also building new life sciences projects in University City.
Rowe said he is not worried that his company is not the only one looking to increase lab space in the Philadelphia region.
"I think it's a sign Philadelphia is doing great," he said. "It will mean Philadelphia becomes more a global center of life sciences which will create more demand for us. … Once a city starts to become a life sciences hub, all of the world's life sciences companies realize they have to be there. It's a very coveted thing to be considered a life sciences hub. There are not that many cities with that moniker and Philly seems to be getting that."
CIC expects its expanded Philadelphia lab space will be available during the first quarter of 2022. The site's existing lab space will remain open and fully functional during construction. All of the office tenants will be retained.
"We have room to house everybody who is there now, even during the construction period," Morin said, noting some additional office and lab space was added during the pandemic. "We expect the balance of lab and office space to shift a little, but to shift us into a higher occupancy."
CIC is looking to hire two people to leadership positions in Philadelphia, one for its overall facility in the city and one to lead lab operations.
When it opened in Philadelphia, CIC contracted with BioLabs to operate its Philadelphia lab space. That partnership is ending. The Philadelphia expansion is being coupled with a corporate initiative to unify, and take in-house, leadership and operations of all current and future labs under the banner of CIC Labs.
“We are grateful for the excellent work the BioLabs@CIC team has done to build and support the life sciences community in Philadelphia, and we hope to find new ways to collaborate in the future,” said Morin.
Rowe did not rule out future CIC expansion in Philadelphia down the road.
"This [project] is a big deal for us and a major investment," he said. "I will say this. In our facilities that have been around longer, we've never stopped growing. … We have not yet seen the limits of our innovation campuses' growth. I'm sure we will discover it at some point. I'm not sure what the natural size is, but I don't think we hit it yet."
