Philadelphia continues to emerge as a life sciences hub, finally providing a new location away from Boston and the Bay Area. This means space is in extremely high demand with new life science development projects popping up all the time. The other big story in Philadelphia development news is the new 76ers stadium project that was announced in July.
The new 76ers Arena is the big news in Philadelphia. The team will be bringing a new, $1.3 billion dollar stadium to Center City. A new development company has been formed called 76 Devcorp, which will be responsible for developing this project. The project is led by David Adelman, a local developer who manages Campus Apartments out of Philadelphia. Others who are involved include Macerich who is the operator of the site and they will also collaborate with Mosaic Development. This project is still in the very early stages but they are anticipating opening the new stadium in 2031.
Brandywine has arranged a JV partnership to develop a $307 million life sciences building in University City. This space could help serve as an expansion for Brandywine’s B.Labs incubator. They are anticipating securing a construction loan in the fourth quarter of this year and have already moved forward with demolition. They expect to deliver the project in the second quarter of 2024.
Adding to the list of life sciences companies that are expanding to Philly, SmartLabs, which is a Boston based Laboratory-as-a-Service company, will be opening its first facility outside of Boston and the Bay Area. They will occupy part of a new 508,000 square foot development project that is being led by Gattuso Development.
Breakthrough Properties, a joint venture between Tishman Speyer, a New York based real estate company and Bellco Capital, a life sciences investment firm, have announced that they will be developing their first project in Philadelphia. A site which had been destined to become a residential building will now become a 200,000 square foot life sciences space right next to University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University.