RTP: A Strong and Exciting Future

Original Post: https://www.buildingbullcity.com/2021/01/rtp-strong-and-exciting-future.html

Dave, happy New Year and thanks again for allowing me the opportunity to contribute to the site! Fantastic news about Adverum, hadn’t see that yet myself.

Thank you for the great post. Let me know if you have any inspiration for future posts as you are more than welcome to continue to contribute if you have the bandwidth!

Another project to keep an eye on. Fujifilm is planning a $2B expansion that will be located in close proximity to one of its existing US sites. The two primary US locations are Morrisville and College Station, TX.

https://www.heraldsun.com/news/business/article248379385.html

Longfellow, the development firm behind Durham Innovation District, announced plans for a $150MM development of new lab space off 54 adjacent to Perimeter Park. Planning for 4 new buildings at 120k square feet each. They continue to bet really big on Durham/RTP.

Looks like the Fujifilm expansion is heading to Holly Springs. Bummer but can’t win them all. Still an outstanding coup for the Triangle as a whole.

Alexandria just spent $42MM to acquire another 98 acres off Ellis Rd and So Hi Drive near the Parmer RTP campus. It doesn’t look like there is anything on this site yet so seems like a placeholder for them to develop a future project of their own or on behalf of one of their clients. Last year they bought 253 acres including the Parmer RTP campus for ~$600MM.

 Before COVID I worked in the Parmer RTP campus, then last year I noticed when it got sold to Alexandria.  

Still appears to be a ton of construction going on in the area which is interesting considering that there is likely to be a surplus of commercial real estate due to the rise of remote working.  I am curious as to what will the additional buildings and spaces will be used for.

It seems like these large real estate development firms are betting heavily on sectors that absolutely require physical space: drug development, R&D, manufacturing, etc. On that note, Alexandria just made another big acquisition in purchasing the Genesis RTP site off Cornwallis Rd. That brings their total investment in RTP to nearly $750MM in the last year alone. They clearly have a huge amount of conviction about the future of the region.

Longfellow is another huge player that is making a sizable investment in Durham. They just announced the next phase of Durham Innovation District and are poised to continue growing here in the future. Really exciting developments in the works in the life sciences/biotech sector.

Thanks for the updates. And agreed.

Durham and RTP are lucky that there was an emphasis on wet lab space, pharma manufacturing, etc even before the pandemic such that growing those sectors today makes a lot of sense. There are a lot of places in this country that are going to see long term negative effects to their core economic sectors, but I think Durham will continue to see growth, only having to pivot a little.

If remote work really does alter the economy and people start living far from their employers (the evidence for this happening on a large scale isn't that strong yet), then putting lots of emphasis on quality of life will be another good strategy. I think Durham is already doing this with its many entertainment options, its comparatively slow way of life and its open and fairly inclusive culture.  Even if some remote workers are moving to the suburbs, they are typically staying in the same metro region (or moving to another, similar metro region).

But I absolutely agree that putting an emphasis on work that has to be done in specialized facilities like wet labs is also an important strategy. Fortunately, these things go together pretty well.  

Alexandria moving forward with 125k square foot development it’s calling the “Center for NextGen Medicines”. This quietly continues to be one of the most important things happening in the region.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alexandria-real-estate-equities-inc-is-leading-the-integration-of-mission-critical-rd-and-next-gen-manufacturing-for-companies-in-research-triangle-that-are-developing-targeted-gene-and-cell-therapies-and-other-complex-medicine-301425349.html