Construction of 503,000-square-foot lab and office building expected to begin this summer
Chicago-based Mark Goodman & Associates, Inc. (MGA), a real estate firm with over 30 years of development, investment and construction management experience, today announced it has closed on the acquisition of an approximately 1.5-acre parcel of land at 400 N. Elizabeth St. in Chicago’s Fulton Market neighborhood, where it will begin construction on a 16-story life sciences facility later this year.
Designed by nationally recognized architecture firm Solomon Cordwell Buentz (SCB) to be a low embodied carbon building that is both LEED Gold and WELL certified, 400 N. Elizabeth St. will be the first purpose-built lab and research and development building in Chicago designed to specifically accommodate the rapidly growing life sciences and biotechnology industry. The building will offer approximately 503,000 square feet of laboratory, office and research & development space suitable for a range of life sciences pursuits, including biotechnology, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, clean energy, food sciences, material sciences and nanotechnology. Additionally, the building will offer 123 underground tenant parking spaces, a tenant fitness center and a ground-level neighborhood café that would be open to the public. Plans for the building’s immediate area also call for enhanced streetscaping and lighting, plus a pedestrian throughway to connect Elizabeth and Kinzie streets to Ogden Avenue and the center of Fulton Market.
“The life sciences market has never been stronger, and with the addition of this building, Chicago is quickly on track to emerge as one of the next centers of excellence in the field to attract highly sought-after investment and premier talent,” said MGA principal Mark Goodman. “Because the industry is experiencing record-breaking highs in funding and job growth, the demand for new construction life sciences lab and office space that is customized for the end-user is unparalleled. With 400 N. Elizabeth, Chicago will have one of the only new R & D/Lab buildings designed by and for scientists to create best-in-class innovation.”
According to JLL, one of the largest global brokerage firms with a practice focused on life sciences, Chicago will grow its life science-based enterprises significantly as the city has all the elements needed for bioscience pursuits. With a robust highly educated workforce, numerous high-tech accelerators and medical research institutions, along with the second-largest concentration of pharmaceutical and manufacturing anchor firms and the second-largest urban medical district in the nation with the Illinois Medical District, Chicago has the intellectual capital and infrastructure to successfully support life science innovation. Additionally, the city boasts the largest percentage increase in life sciences venture capital and National Institute of Health (NIH) funding of any major market over the past three years.
“While Chicago is attracting life sciences investment in many neighborhoods, Fulton Market is quickly becoming a de facto hub in the city, with additional supply of lab space being planned and delivered,” said Scott Brandwein, managing director of JLL. “Drawing on its industrial roots, Fulton Market offers proximity to the medical district, major educational institutions, and some of the city’s marquee employers, along with Michelin-starred restaurants, luxury residential buildings and boutique hotels, making it a highly desirable urban location that appeals to the scientists and professionals that work for life sciences firms. It has all the right elements for a company wanting a downtown location that will become only more attractive to employees over time.”
The building was meticulously and thoughtfully designed to meet the exacting criteria needed for life sciences pursuits. From the layout of the floorplates and the flow of traffic from the loading dock to the elevator, to the slab-to-slab ceiling heights and the depth of the windows to the core, every detail was carefully considered to best meet the distinctive needs of the industry.
“Our design resulted in large floorplates for labs and high bay ground floor for specialty spaces, such as pilot labs, to uniquely position the building for established and emerging companies looking for flexible and highly sustainable lease spaces near the West Loop,” said Jay Longo, AIA, principal at SCB.
Pre-construction planning and work at the site, which is located at the corner of Elizabeth and Kinzie streets and was the former home of the Lakeshore Beverage distributorship, will begin immediately and is expected to take approximately eight months. Site preparation, including demolition of the Lakeshore Beverage building, is expected to commence later this year, followed by a groundbreaking for MGA’s new building in 2023. Construction is anticipated to take up to 20 months, with an expected completion date in 2024.
400 N. Elizabeth marks the latest commercial project for MGA in the Fulton Market neighborhood. MGA recently co-developed an office building at 320 Sangamon with Tishman Speyer that delivered in March 2021. The speculative 13-story, 270,000-square-foot building quickly signed several high-profile tenants and is already 78% leased.
Renderings of MGA’s new building at 400 N. Elizabeth St. can be viewed here.
