Life science–focused developer on why the city’s sector is about to boom – Crain’s New York Business

What’s different now?

Things have changed in the city, especially in the past five years. The mayor and the Economic Development Corp. have focused on growing the life science industry, enacting favorable rezoning and dedicating funds to accelerator programs to encourage growth. Additionally, the demand for luxury condos has cooled a little. We should be able to see more affordable real estate developed for the life science sector.

What kind of spaces will those be?

There are certain trends for biotech and life science companies in what they need to flourish at different stages of their growth. Small ones might look for lab space of up to 15,000 square feet, and those that proceed to Series A growth will then look for space of about 50,000 square feet. The next stage up requires space of about 150,000 square feet, and so on. New York City certainly has the room to provide sites for startup and “graduation” spaces. But these places aren’t going to be located anywhere, there a few essential things needed: access to transport and access to institutions. I expect to see development nodes by Columbia University, the Genome Center in Lower Manhattan and by the New York Blood Center on the Upper East Side. Long Island City provides more room for bigger, affordable developments as well. Eventually, when these companies grow to be much larger, there’s always space in nearby New Jersey.

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