California Dreamin': Life Sciences Sector to Invest Nearly $1 Billion for 3Q16 West Coast Construction Starts

Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Info Resources, Incorporated (Sugar Land, Texas)--As the third quarter of this year gets under way, the life sciences sector is on track to kick off construction on nearly $1 billion worth of capital and MRO (maintenance) projects in the West Coast region. An analysis of Industrial Info's Pharmaceutical-Biotech Online Database of active projects revealed that the West Coast Region has 23 projects representing a total investment value (TIV) of $977 million scheduled to kick-off during the next three months.

The West Coast Region includes California, Oregon and Washington.

The projects referenced are sourced out of the public, private and institutional markets and include everything from grassroot projects to scheduled maintenance programs. The projects reveal an emerging trend within the industry, in that the majority of them have to do with manufacturing rather than research. That is not to say that research and development labs, from both the private and public sector, will not see continued investment as it is essential to growth. Rather, it is just an uptick in expanding, maintaining and upgrading manufacturing plants to support growing demand.

See list of 3Q16 West Coast kick-offs at the end of this article.

A sampling of the current reported west coast projects are as varied as the industry itself. Hillsboro, Oregon has been tapped by Roche's (Basel, Switzerland) Genentech Incorporated (South San Francisco, California) as the site for a $125 million biotherapeutic fill and finish unit addition. The project will add a third aseptic fill/finish production suite within the company's existing 300,000-square-foot plant, expanding the current fill/finish capacity of 20 million vials (3cc to 100cc) per year. NNE Pharmaplan (Morrisville, North Carolina) served as the project architect & engineer (A&E) consultant, and Skanska USA (Portland, Oregon) is the general contractor.

In Foster City, California, as part of Gilead Sciences' (NASDAQ:GILD) master plan for its 72-acre South Campus, the company will demolish an existing 29,000 square-foot laboratory building, replacing it with a $150 million state-of-the-art 6-story, 230,000 square-foot facility. The new lab will be outfitted to conduct research and development of therapeutics for the treatment of hepatitis B & C, HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular diseases (including angina) and other related remedies. Project team members include DGA (Mountain View, California), Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) (Santa Ana, California) and DPR Construction (Redwood City, California).

Bellingham, Washington is the planned site for a $25 million investment to build a grassroot cannabis (marijuana) cultivation and processing plant. Aurora Cannabis Incorporated (Vancouver, British Columbia) has tapped AJR Builders (Atco, New Jersey) as the design-build for a 500,000 square foot building on a 24.5-acre site. Once complete, the plant will house the cultivation, processing, warehousing and quality control of cannabis products.

As always, some of the projects forecast to begin in the next three months may be delayed or put on hold, just as others will be added as they are uncovered or project schedules change.

3Q16 West Coast Kick-Offs

Project Number	Project TIV	Project Name
300272424	$200,000,000.00	LIFE SCIENCE NORTH TOWER ADDITION
300133583	$160,000,000.00	LIFE SCIENCES COMPLEX 1 ADDITION
300270537	$150,000,000.00	CARDIOVASCULAR, HEPATITIS B & C, HIV/AIDS R&D LABORATORY ADDITION
300211228	$125,000,000.00	BIOTHERAPEUTICS FILL & FINISH PLANT PRODUCTION SUITE ADDITION
300189337	$120,000,000.00	MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH BUILDING I ADDITION
300203957	$80,000,000.00	SPECULATIVE R&D LABORATORY
300195775	$75,000,000.00	LIFE SCIENCE RESEARCH REPLACEMENT BUILDING ADDITION
300224581	$25,000,000.00	GRASSROOT CANNABIS (MARIJUANA) CULTIVATION & PROCESSING PLANT
300071113	$6,000,000.00	DUAL VACCINE LABORATORY & MFG ADDITION (PHASE II)
300289572	$6,000,000.00	MAMMALIAN CELL CULTURE BIOMANUFACTURING CMO PLANT ADDITION/RENOVATION
300270224	$5,000,000.00	THERMOPLASTIC MEDICAL DEVICE CMO PLANT EXPANSION
300254787	$5,000,000.00	HUMAN GENETIC CELL CULTURE (BIOLOGICS) PLANT 3Q16 MAINTENANCE SHUTDOWN
300184805	$4,000,000.00	ANTIVIRAL AND INJECTABLE PLANT CLOSURE, DISMANTLEMENT AND SALE
300226049	$3,500,000.00	BLOOD DERIVATIVES & PROTEIN THERAPEUTICS 3Q16 MAINTENANCE SHUTDOWN
300282199	$2,000,000.00	BIOTHERAPEUTICS FILL AND FINISH PLANT (HFF) 3Q16 MAINTENANCE SHUTDOWN
300280028	$2,000,000.00	HUMAN MILK-BASED NUTRITIONAL PRODUCTS PLANT UTILITY UPGRADES
300289740	$2,000,000.00	NUTRITIONAL BARS CMO PLANT FISCAL 2017 CAPEX PROGRAM
300206938	$1,500,000.00	OTC GENERIC ORAL DOSE CMO 2016 MAINTENANCE PROGRAM
300247546	$1,000,000.00	COSMETICS GELS, LIQUIDS, CREAMS & POWDERS PLANT 3Q16 MAINTENANCE S/D
300236293	$1,000,000.00	GENERIC TABLETS & CAPSULES PLANT 3Q16 MAINTENANCE SHUTDOWN
300236571	$1,000,000.00	PARENTERALS CMO PLANT 2016 MAINTENANCE PROGRAM
300231266	$1,000,000.00	R&D AND CLINICAL SCALE CANCER THERAPEUTICS 3Q16 MAINTENANCE S/D
300228768	$1,000,000.00	BIOPHARMA VIAL/SYRINGE FILL/FINISH CMO PLANT 2016 MAINTENANCE PROGRAM

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com/.