Property requirements
Life Sciences work can vary widely, requiring highly specialized space in which to perform it. This specialization presents barriers to entry for those wishing to convert a traditional office or warehouse building into a lab. Still, there are some basic physical requirements common to the sector, including greater slab-to-slab heights, accessible loading docks, wastewater treatment, freight elevators, and heavy mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) equipment. These property features are not only more expensive to install, but they are also more intensive to maintain, making the ongoing cost of managing life sciences space higher than for other types of commercial properties.
Wet & dry labs
Early-stage life science research is done in a lab, sometimes under the auspices of an academic or health system incubator. Labs require tight controls on air quality, including temperature and ventilation. To meet these standards, the ceilings of labs house intensive duct work, piping for compressed air, control valves, reheat coils, and other HVAC equipment. This means that state-of-the-art lab space is typically built with a greater slab-to-slab height than exists in many traditional office buildings. Labs also need redundant power supplies so that equipment, process controls, and computers maintain functionality. Depending on the specific equipment in use, it can also be important to manage vibration and electromagnetic radiation in a lab space.
Manufacturing & distribution
Once a life sciences project has moved past the proof-of-concept stage, its need for space changes almost overnight. As a drug or device progresses through clinical trials, life sciences companies need access to manufacturing and distribution capacity (in addition to continued R&D). Large, established companies may use existing facilities for this scale-up phase, but most others will look to a CMO for validated manufacturing space. (They may also need more administrative space for overseeing trials—see below).
Administration
Life sciences firms taking a product to market need more administrative space as they progress through the approval process, and especially as they ramp up for commercialization. They need places to meet with investors, suppliers, and customers. They need space to collect and analyze data from field trials. And they need to support the functions of basic business: accounting, sales, customer service, etc. In this respect, they are not unlike other office-using organizations, and that includes the ability to conduct aspects of the business remotely.
Contemporary “lab” buildings include a portion designated for administration that ranges from 40-50 percent of the space. (In extreme cases, perhaps less.) Administrative functions can be shifted toward higher floors, with more lab-intensive space below, in accordance with building and fire codes. As space in life sciences clusters becomes more expensive (see below) and hybrid work takes hold, the way firms approach their administrative functions will bear watching.
