Life Sciences Real Estate #15

AUSTRIA – VIENNA

Takeda is building a new R&D lab in Vienna's Seestadt Aspern region. From 2026, around 250 researchers will be working at this new site with a clear focus on biologics. The R&D work will be heavily digitalised and supported by innovative technologies such as robotics, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and the simulation of processes using digital twins.

GERMANY – HAMBURG

The construction work on the new Campus Research II (CF II) and Hamburg Center for Translational Immunology (HCTI) for the Faculty of Medicine of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) is on the home stretch. Built on a 3,900 sq m (42,000 sq ft) construction site, the research and laboratory building has approximately 9,000 sq m (97,000 sq ft) of usable space.

GERMANY - INGELHEIM

Midas Pharma is working on a new building next to its existing headquarters, located in Ingelheim (which is also home to Boehringer Ingelheim). Work has been in full progress since the groundbreaking ceremony on 22 January 2024. The new wing of the building will have 140 sq m (1,500 sq ft) of lab space plus 40 new workstations on three floors.

IRELAND – GALWAY

Hitech Health, a contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) for advanced therapies, has opened an additional facility in County Galway at a cost of between €5 million and €10 million (£4.2 and £8.5 million). The new manufacturing centre works on sterile formulations (including cell and gene therapies) and operates to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards. It is certified to European Medicine Agency (EMA) standards by Ireland's Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA).

IRELAND – DUBLIN

SK Biotek, a South Korean-owned pharmaceutical contract development company, has received planning permission to develop an active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing facility in Swords, Co Dublin. According to planning documents, the total installed cost for the project is between €30 million (£26 million) and €35 million (£30 million). The new manufacturing plant has been designated as a “multi-product” facility.

NETHERLANDS – ROTTERDAM

The Beagle Marconi building will rise in Rotterdam’s Merwe-Vierhaven (M4H) area, an old port site of approximately 100 hectares (247 acres), in 2026. Positioned at the intersection of Marconistraat and Benjamin Franklinstraat, and spanning 13,600 sq m (1.6 million sq ft), Beagle Marconi offers lab and office space. Its flexible floor height of four metres (13 feet) allows for efficient ventilation, facilitating the placement of laboratories throughout the building. The structure comprises a high-rise section, the Bridge, with seven floors, and a lower section, the Deck, with four floors.

SWITZERLAND – GENEVA

RE Capital and its investment partner Real Estate Investment Group (REIG) have begun the construction phase of the RUBIX industrial project. The project is located in the Meyrin-Satigny industrial and commercial zone in Geneva and comprises two buildings, offering over 47,000 sq m (506,000 sq ft) of space that can be adapted to the needs of organisations. It will be completed in 2025 and is modular in design to suit companies with demanding requirements, such as medical, research and development, luxury watchmaking, and high-tech industries.

UK – GLASGOW

A new dedicated Radionuclide Dispensary is to be built for NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, on a brownfield plot within the grounds of Gartnavel Hospital. The facility will include clean rooms, labs and associated support and ancillary spaces. This location will serve the wider West of Scotland area, operating as a key distribution hub for the radiopharmaceuticals that will be manufactured within the new facility.

UK – LIVERPOOL

Laboratory firm BioGrad is creating a 10,000 sq ft (929 sq m) ‘biobank’ as part of a £7.6 million (€8.9 million) investment into its new headquarters in Wavertree Technology Park. Originally called BioGrad Diagnostics, the business was set up by owner and chief executive Dr Natalie Kenny in 2014. Based at Liverpool Science Park, it grew significantly in 2020 and 2021 as it pivoted to provide COVID testing. The firm is now diversifying to focus on stem cell and regenerative medicine research. The Wavertree site is BioGrad’s fifth location in the Liverpool city region, in addition to satellite sites in Oxford and London.

UK - LONDON

British Land has announced plans to convert an old Meta office into flexible lab spaces in London. Aiming to attract smaller life sciences start-ups, the existing co-working space located at 1 Triton Square in Regent’s Place campus will be converted to include fitted-out labs on the second and third floors, lab-enabled spaces on the fourth and fifth floors, and flexible shell and core facilities on the upper three floors. British Land also plans to add air handling plant rooms, cryogenic and gas storage, outer glazing system replacement, and dedicated fume extract systems.

UK – LONDON

Work to transform 85 Gray’s Inn Road, a 30,000 sq ft (2,790 sq m) former office building in London’s Midtown, into a lab-enabled space has reached practical completion. The building, owned by Clearbell Property Partners III LP, a fund managed by Clearbell Capital LLP, is in London’s Knowledge Quarter. The building’s repurposing as a wet and dry laboratory-enabled space has been designed to accommodate a range of flexible and bespoke fit-out options.

UK – SURREY

The University of Surrey will soon open the doors to its Centre of Excellence for Bioanalytical Science, thanks to a £500,000 (€585,000) grant from the Wolfson Foundation. The Centre will develop new ways of measuring biomarkers (chemical signatures widely used in biology and medicine) and will make use of the Surrey Ion Beam Centre which already supports £100 million (€117 million) in funding from 23 universities and industries. 

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