The first building within a massive life sciences district at Georgia Tech recently finished vertical construction, setting the stage for startups to soon have new lab space.
Trammell Crow Company, the institute’s development partner on the 18-acre Science Square innovation district, announced Monday it topped out construction on the project’s first building, a 13-story lab and office building. The developer also finalized terms with its first tenant, life sciences venture capital fund Portal Innovations, which will lease more than 33,000 square feet on the building’s 10th floor.
Science Square, which was formerly known as Technology Enterprise Park, is a long-planned development that aims to bolster Atlanta’s biotech and life sciences sectors. The five-phase project is expected to eventually include more than 2.3 million square feet of lab and office space in addition to hundreds of apartments.
Credit: Aerial Innovations Southeast
Credit: Aerial Innovations Southeast
Georgia is the home of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Task Force for Global Health and medical schools, including Emory, Morehouse, Mercer and the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. But the project at North Avenue and Northside Drive is among Georgia’s most notable attempts to pursue the life science sector and become a rival to biomedical research hubs like Boston, North Carolina’s Research Triangle and San Francisco.
Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera previously said Science Square will be the medical companion to Tech Square’s Coda building, a glitzy technology and research tower that opened in 2019.
The project’s first building, Science Square Labs, will be joined by a 280-unit residential building that’s also under construction. Both are on track to open during the first quarter of next year.
Credit: Trammell Crow Company
Credit: Trammell Crow Company
Portal, which operates three incubators across the country, will lease out space to aspiring entrepreneurs and provide seed funding. Katherine Lynch, a Trammell Crow principal, said in a news release that Portal will help further “Atlanta’s strong position in the life science industry.”
The company’s space will include wet and dry labs, private offices, collaborative spaces and an outdoor terrace. John Flavin, Portal’s founder and CEO, previously told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he expects the space to host about 20 startups.
“We’re make a bet that by being here and using our model that we’re at the beginning of a decade or 20 years of strong growth,” he said in May.
Science Square Labs will also feature two food and beverage spaces, a fitness center, conference spaces and a tenant lounge and catering kitchen that can be reserved for special events. A 38,000-square-foot solar panel array will also be featured on the building’s parking garage.
The site falls within an federal Opportunity Zone, an area that provides tax credits for development projects in low-income neighborhoods. The Development Authority of Fulton County also approved up to $29.4 million in property tax breaks for the development.
Trammell Crow, which is building a pedestrian bridge to connect the institute’s campus to west Atlanta neighborhoods, also promised $2.5 million to support education efforts in surrounding communities to help nearby residents gain skills to work in the life sciences industry.
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