California-based BioRealty, a developer of life science and technology real estate projects, plans to invest at least $27 million in a three-building biosciences park in the Town of Clayton, NC.
A national leader in facility and capital solutions, the company plans to begin with the construction of an industrial shell building that will comprise 100,000 sqft of speculative space on a 67-acre town-owned property.
The Johnston County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a building lease arrangement with BioRealty, as well as a performance-based Economic Development Incentive Grant (EDIG) based on ad valorem tax payments.
Based in San Clemente, BioRealty intends to build up to three speculative industrial buildings that would target companies in the life sciences and biopharma industries. The total build-out of the development could be more than 400,000 sqft.
In thanking commissioners, Stan Wendzel, founder and Managing Director of the company, summarised BioRealty’s expectations of the new space: “We’re not only excited about the project but we’re really excited about attracting what we think is very likely going to be biomanufacturing users to this park,” Wendzel said. “We could have probably done this in a lot of places. But for us, the real driving factor behind this has been the lease programme that Johnston County has in place as well as the EDIG.”
From the ground up: designing the buildings
BioRealty will design, finance, build, operate and jointly market the project.
Code-named “Project Life Dust,” the new build marks the fourth time in two years that the County has partnered with the private sector to expand the local inventory of high-end industrial real estate. In December of 2022, E.D. Parker Corporation unveiled plans for at least 275,000 sqft of Class A speculative industrial space in Benson.
AdvanceTEC, a Richmond, Va. firm that designs and builds cleanroom space, and Ohio-based Al. Neyer LLC previously announced plans for developing speculative industrial space in Clayton and Smithfield, respectively.
