A building once home to a major U.S. cigarette manufacturer will soon emerge from a $128 million redevelopment as a hub of life science research, innovation and company formation.
Under construction for the last two years by Baltimore developer Wexford Science & Technology, The Chesterfield was nearly gutted to make room for a multi-story, glass ceilinged atrium, 100,000 square feet of Duke University labs, the East Coast headquarters of Silicon Valley tech startup Nutanix and a biotech coworking space called BioLabsNC.
Cambridge, Mass.-based BioLabs chose Durham for its fourth shared lab and workspace for life science and biotech entrepreneurs—sister sites exist in life science innovation hubs in Cambridge, New York and San Diego. Today, it announced three “cornerstone partners” to help launch the space and assist companies housed there: GSK, developer Wexford and local law firm Wyrick Robbins.
We toured the former cigarette factory earlier this month as contractors put the finishing touches on the atrium and Duke University space and began installing equipment and benches within BioLabs’ 42,000 square feet, which has room for 40 companies. Its members will move in later this summer, in time for the building’s September grand opening.
More in the video below from Joan Siefert Rose, CEO of LaunchBio, the newly created organization helping to program the space and connect members with resources nationwide.
