Partners Land $290M Loan for Largest Philly Life Science Campus

Gattuso Development Partners and Vigilant Holdings have secured a $290 million construction loan for what will become the largest life science campus in Philadelphia.

The 520,000-SF, 11-story complex at 3201 Cuthbert Street is scheduled to be completed in early 2025, and a significant portion of it already is pre-leased to two tenants. SmartLabs and Drexel University have inked deals for about 45% of the lab space at the facility.

JLL Capital Markets arranged the construction loan for the project through Corebridge Financial as well as an equity commitment from The Baupost Group.

The campus will include wet and dry lab space, about 12K SF of ground-floor retail and 137 underground parking spaces. The research building will include floor-to-floor heights, HVAC systems tailored for biotech work, chemical storage space, Ph neutralization capability, vertical shaft infrastructure and six enclosed loading docks.

The new $400M life science facility will be located on Drexel’s campus in the University City District, which has become the center of Philadelphia’s burgeoning life science sector.

Several major life science projects have been announced in Philadelphia this year. In October, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia broke ground on a 350K SF research facility next to the Robert’s Center for Pediatric Research.

In June, Longfellow Real Estate Partners acquired a 75-year ground lease to develop, finance and operate a new 455K SF life sciences facility on the Pennovation Works.

Pennovation Works, a 23-acre University of Pennsylvania property across the Schuykill River from the university’s core campus, is a former DuPont chemical research facility that was converted in 2016 into the Pennovation Center, and incubator for science and technology startups.

The $365M R&D facility Longfellow will develop is expected to include 387K SF of biotech research space and about 68K SF that will be reserved for biomanufacturing. Construction on the new building will begin next year and is scheduled to be completed by 2025.

A month earlier, Breakthrough Properties acquired a site on the 2300 Market St. block in Philadelphia’s Center City district where it will develop 200K SF of lab space.