Alexandria Real Estate Equities, the largest life sciences developer in the country, is expanding its presence in Texas with plans to develop a $201 million life science campus in suburban Houston. The development is expected to open in the first quarter of 2023 and will span 325,000 square feet across 12 acres in The Woodlands, a suburb about 30 miles north of downtown Houston. Designed by Gensler, most of the campus will be built-to-suit for various life science tenants, while 30,000 square feet will be built on a spec basis.
The new campus is the latest addition to Houston’s growing life sciences and biotech sector, which has been drawing interest from tenants in other markets, according to Alexandria Chairman Joel Marcus. Other recent projects in the city include a new 76,000-square-foot biomanufacturing facility from San Diego-based Cellipont Bioservices and the $1.8 billion Helix Park Project in Houston. City and industry leaders hope will be a turning point for the city’s biotech sector and lead to additional spinoffs and startups. After a record-setting year in 2021, the national life sciences market normalized in the third quarter of this year. According to CBRE, life sciences venture capital funding dropped 29 percent quarter-over-quarter to $4.1 billion in the third quarter of 2022, a figure in line with pre-pandemic levels.
