Due to these investments inventory for life sciences space is projected to more than double to 4.64 million square feet by 2025.
Pasco County, FL Creates Monumental Medical City
In December 2022 Moffitt Cancer Center and the Pasco County Economic Development Council in Florida unveiled plans for building a new “medical city” called Speros FL, a $9.3 billion venture to develop 775 acres into 16 million square feet of clinical, lab, manufacturing, and office space.
“You cannot separate cancer research and treatment from hope, which is the root of the name ‘Speros FL’ and the driving force behind all that we do at Moffitt Cancer Center,” said Dr. Patrick Hwu, President and CEO of Moffitt, at the unveiling. “Our vision is to be the global epicenter for personalized oncology care and leading research that will revolutionize the way we prevent, find, and treat cancer.”
The Pasco County EDC spent years working with state legislators to create just the right environment to start this project. As part of securing the deal Pasco EDC collaborated to have the Florida legislature increase the amount of cigarette tax allocation Moffitt receives, providing enough money for them to buy the land. Also key to the deal was getting the oldest permit in history approved by the Army Corps of Engineers to build a road connecting the property to Interstate 75. At that point the project was possible. With convenient access to Tampa International Airport and major interstates, Speros FL will be a monumental-sized campus.
“Moffitt realized years ago that they would never be able to bring their research and science partners directly next door to them because they were located in the city of Tampa encroached on by the city, with academia and other types of businesses taking up the surrounding buildings, leaving them no room for growth or collaboration,” says Pasco EDC CEO Bill Cronin. “So the vision was to find a footprint large enough to take Moffitt to the next level and go beyond just responding to the current need, instead being proactive to satisfy needs even further down the road.”
The state-of-the-art facility is the largest in Moffitt’s 36-year history and will be designed as an influential hub for enterprises from an intersection of the life sciences and biotech industry including medical, education, pharmaceutical, venture capital, and incubation.
Pittsburgh’s Innovation Fuels Life Science Ecosystem
Pittsburgh, PA had more than 200 life science and healthcare companies that announced expansions or capital investments representing $4 billion in the region between 2010 and 2020. Pittsburgh is fast gaining a reputation as a well-regarded hub for research and development in life sciences, ranking No. 1 in CBRE’s 2022 list of top emergence clusters in the U.S.
“The Pittsburgh region has a longstanding reputation as a leader in world-changing life sciences and healthcare innovation,” says Matt Smith, Chief Growth Officer, Allegheny Conference on Community Development. “Our position as a trailblazer in this sector is only growing as our ecosystem continues to generate leading-edge technology in medical device manufacturing, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and much more. It’s happening in the Pittsburgh region because of the depth of industrial expertise in manufacturing, higher education research and development leading to sector breakthroughs, and an entrepreneurial and collaborative approach here that brings it all together.”
Anchor universities, such as the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, have been providing fuel for a burgeoning life science ecosystem. The University of Pittsburgh (UP) is routinely one of the nation’s leaders in NIH funding, receiving more than $600 million in 2022 alone.
Partnership and collaboration have contributed to the acceleration of the life sciences in the Pittsburgh region. One example is a recent partnership between Cambridge, MA-based ElevateBio and UP to create a biomanufacturing center at Pitt BioForge, near the city’s Innovation District. Another notable example is a partnership between UP and Wexford Science & Technology LLC to renovate the Ford Motor Co. manufacturing plant into a new research hub called The Assembly which opened in May 2022.
New Jersey Has A Long History As A Life Sciences Hub
According to Cushman & Wakefield’s Q1 2022 Life Sciences Industry report, two of the top 10 largest transactions for life sciences public and private investment in the last two years were awarded to New Jersey companies: Certara ($668 million), a drug development software and services company headquartered in Princeton, and Catalent ($548 million), a drug development, delivery, and supply company for pharma, biotech, and consumer health based in Somerset.
Not surprising since the Garden State has a strong history as a life sciences hub, and today is home to eight of the world’s top 10 life sciences companies, including the global headquarters of Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Bristol Myers Squibb, as well as the U.S. headquarters of Novartis, Bayer, Teva, Eisai, and others.
The state is investing big in new, mixed-use lab facilities such as Helix in New Brunswick, a four-million-square-foot project designed to connect companies with researchers to develop new products, and The Cove in Jersey City, a 13-acre, mixed-use campus, offering 1.4 million square feet of academic and commercial life science laboratory and office space.
In 2022, the state launched the $300 million Innovation Evergreen Fund to support startups, and this year they launched the $60 million Life Sciences Investment Fund to support early stage life science businesses.