Ten Years In, Pennovation Works Is Still Philadelphia Commercial Real Estate's Best Argument for Lab Space
23 acres, 100-plus companies, and $1.1 billion raised since 2016. Penn's innovation complex on the Schuylkill just proved lab and flex space on an old industrial site outperforms tearing it down.
Pennovation Works turns ten this October. The University of Pennsylvania's 23-acre complex in Grays Ferry, opened in 2016, runs on three buildings: a 65,000 square foot multi-tenant lab building, a 21,600 square foot office building, and the 50,000 square foot Pennovation Center incubator. Together they now house more than 100 companies that have raised over $1.1 billion since the complex opened, according to Managing Director Denita Henderson.
The number that matters for anyone who owns industrial or flex real estate near a university or hospital system is the tenant mix. A converted industrial site on a river is pulling lab, biotech, and hardware startups that would otherwise be competing for space in University City or the Navy Yard. Pennovation worked without new construction, on clear height, power capacity, and proximity to Penn's research pipeline.
If you're holding an old industrial building anywhere near a research university, a hospital system, or a life sciences cluster in this region, Pennovation's decade is the proof of concept. The lab and flex tenant base is renting whatever building already has the bones and the address, no ground-up construction required.
Source: Philadelphia Business Journal
Why it matters
A ten-year-old conversion of industrial space into lab and flex space just crossed $1.1 billion raised by its tenants. Old industrial buildings near research institutions are worth pricing as lab space before someone else converts them first.
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