Chicago Life Sciences Can Rise from Good to Great
The Bisnow Quarterly Chicago Life Science Conference May 2021 was an affirmation of all that is vibrant and strong about the market. Appropriately, the theme was about how to capitalize on a growing industry. However, the fact remains that the city struggles to break the US top ten by various measures.
To realize its potential, Chicago needs strong partnership with the real estate development community. And it seems evident that real estate development for Life Sciences requires a deeper industry knowledge than the general office market or other asset classes. CRE developers interested in tapping the potential of the asset class must understand those specific needs. Here’s how that conversation sounds:
Notable Strengths
Chicago is home to world class universities with well established and thriving life sciences departments.
Thriving Chicago venture firms in BioTech, Life Science and other healthcare sectors. 12 Chicago VCs You Should Know About.
World Business Chicago and other pro-business associations bring much to expand the conversation and foster connections for growth. Here is what WBC reports on Chicago’s Life Sciences and Healthcare leadership.
Celebrating our wins:
Recent accomplishments in expanding the city’s life science footprint include the Joint Venture Team Kaleidoscope Health Ventures, Farpoint Development and Israel's Sheba Medical Center, with their deal to build the first U.S. ARC Innovation Center in Chicago—a collaborative innovation model designed create Health Equity and Healthcare Transformation
Trammell Crow Company is delivering the second phase of its Fulton Labs facility in early 2022 and has signed Talis Biomedical Corporation as a tenant, among other life sciences and biotech companies who will occupy the building. And for the sciences more broadly, Chicago is home to Argonne National Laboratory.
Growth Pathways: needs and opportunities that will support Life Sciences success.
Graduate startups—firms ready to move from incubation stage to a more rapid scaling up of growth— need the next level of lab and office space. Inside the incubator environment, a couple of benches were enough to get started. The next step is a full scale wet lab. Small, but fully featured. From there room is needed to expand as the company wins new rounds of funding and grows.
Life sciences companies operate in a fast-paced environment with volatility, twists and turns. To serve them, real estate developers need to know how these ecosystems work.
Real estate developers have traditionally focused on anchor tenant strategies to obtain funding for development. But today’s post COVID market is different for all businesses—it’s much more difficult for companies to anticipate their needs years into the future. Further, life sciences businesses have unique resource needs at early and middle stage startup growth phases. This will challenge developers to provide creative options such as modular form factors, shorter terms, and other deal structures suited to rapid scaling.
Collaboration is an essential part of the scientific side of life sciences, involving a vibrant mix of talent, hospital, university and financial resources. To access the potential, the real estate development community must engage the spirit of “clusters” and to build those muscles—the skills and business practices that complement and boost the community beyond the walls of the development. Chicago will win when the players can also help others win.
Talent is the pulse of all business, and life sciences professionals are looking for options along their career paths. A rich ecosystem of growing companies, hospitals, universities and financial investors can generate a virtuous cycle that will help keep talent in the Chicago market where careers can flourish.
The bottom line is that Chicago, with all its potential, is still striving to be a leader. To be successful, we need to attract more talent, more money and “a bit more of everything.” If successful, the rewards will take many forms, from individual success to broad economic growth and not the least, the pride and satisfaction of making Chicago take its richly deserved place among the best life sciences market, and continue to improve the human condition through advancements in health, health equality.
Thanks to The Bisnow Quarterly Chicago Life Science Conference panelists who represent of some of Chicago’s best and brightest in the life sciences ecosystem: Kate Schellinger of the Illinois Medical District, Alicia Loffler, Innovation and New Ventures at Northwestern University, Christine Karslake, with the Polsky Center at the University of Chicago, and Lisa Dzieken, Vice President at World Business Chicago.