New Facilities Place Houston Life Sciences ‘At The Cusp Of The Horizon’

The pieces are in place, but Houston’s life sciences market has yet to boom.

That could finally change, thanks to a swath of new space, as long as developers and leaders keep building and fostering a culture for the industry to thrive, according to panelists at Bisnow’s Life Sciences Evolution: Innovation and Growth in Houston event held Wednesday at The Westin Houston, Memorial City.

“The pieces have been in place in Houston for a while, and it hasn’t quite come to fruition yet,” SOM Science Practice Director Danielle McGuire said.

“We may be finally at the cusp of the horizon and about to tip over it, especially when you put the biotech and biomanufacturing piece together with it.” 

One big piece fell into place when San Jacinto College, McCord Development and the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training broke ground last week on the Center for Biotechnology at Generation Park Campus. Developers were inspired to pair NIBRT and San Jacinto College to train students in biomanufacturing after Amgen picked North Carolina over Houston for a $550M biomanufacturing project in 2022 due to its more established workforce. 

The biotechnology center’s groundbreaking is one of the several major strides made in Houston’s life sciences market in the past year. 

Texas Medical Center’s Helix Park, a 37-acre life sciences campus, officially opened in October with the launch of the 250K SF TMC3 Collaborative building. Houston Methodist last month leased two full floors for biomedical research in Helix Park’s 355K SF Dynamic One building, where Baylor College of Medicine is the anchor tenant. 

Before Helix Park was established, for-profit and life sciences companies had no access to TMC institutions, which account for 20% of all clinical trials done in the U.S., said Lisa Bovermann, a life sciences-focused senior vice president at Transwestern. Helix Park broke that barrier and put Houston on the map, she said. 

“Top-tier” Beacon Capital is the developer of the industry buildings at Helix Park, she said.

“They have been able to come in and build these purpose-built life sciences buildings, which we have never had in Houston before,” Bovermann added.

Nearly 1M SF of purpose-built lab space was added to Houston’s life sciences ecosystem last year, helping to grow its talent base. CBRE last year ranked Houston 14th out of the nation's top 25 largest life sciences employment clusters.

Houston's diversity of people and talent is an asset in growing the industry, said Cubio Innovation Center CEO Wesley Okeke, pointing to a local mindset that is conducive to innovation and development. 

But despite its history of doing important research for the aerospace, petrochemical and energy industries, the city still has work to do on its culture, said Jon Nordby, founder of venture capital firm Anthropy Partners. 

“We have historically sucked at this cultural piece of what innovation really takes at the earliest stages, which is collaboration,” Nordby said. “It is this culture of innovation that sort of permeates other cities and ecosystems that have most of these [life sciences] resources.” 

There is an opportunity to develop that culture right now, and venture capital investments will follow, he said. 

Houston needs to push itself in other ways to soar, panelists said. More established centers of science and innovation have better amenities and a higher quality of life that includes more places to walk, relax, find entertainment and eat, said Verena Kallhoff, senior director of global life sciences for the Greater Houston Partnership. 

“Scientists are people too,” she said, garnering a laugh from attendees.

CEOs are also enticed by tours highlighting how close their employees could live to work, as that improves recruitment capabilities, she said, adding the Houston region is doing a good job of building those kinds of places.

On the subject of tours, Bovermann said once she can get prospects and scientists to Helix Park, they are impressed by the amenities, which include collaboration space.

“Scientists come, over 20 at a time, and [they] see the parks, they see the amenity floor where they can come, take a break and just walk out on a terrace,” Bovermann said. “They’re just like, ‘Wow.’”

At the TMC3 Collaborative building, an atrium space with a 21-foot-tall LED screen is already booked for the next year despite still being built out.

“Everyone is just pumped and excited about it,” Bovermann said.