North American Pharma-Biotech Sector to Wrap Up Construction on 116 Projects Worth $3.7 Billion in Second-Quarter 2014

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Reported by Annette Kreuger, Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Midway through the second quarter of 2014, the North American Pharmaceutical-Biotech Industry is busy finishing an impressive array of capital construction projects. With roughly a month and a half left to the quarter, the sector is on target to complete construction on 116 North American capital projects, each as diverse as the industry itself. A recent survey of reported projects in Industrial Info's Pharmaceutical Biotech Tracker-Online Database reveals that the projects represent a total investment value (TIV) of $3.7 billion.

Click on the image at right for a graph detailing North American Pharmaceutical-Biotech projects to be completed in second-quarter 2014 by region.

Sources for the second-quarter activity include private industry, commercial developers, universities and the federal government. The projects reported involve grassroot facilities, major building additions to existing sites, and in-plant capital. The projects are a varied group in both size and focus. The average TIV for each of the projects is a healthy $32 million.

The largest of the projects scheduled for second-quarter completion is $343 million Broad Research Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. With a project team that includes developer Boston Properties (Boston, Massachusetts), architect Elkus Manfredi (Boston) and Suffolk Construction (Danvers, Massachusetts), the 375,000-square-foot building will consolidate and expand Broad's operations. The new 15-story research building will connect to the Institute's existing location at 7 Cambridge Center, offering a total research area of 500,000 square feet.

In Duluth, Georgia, the Hunt Construction Group (Dallas, Texas) is putting the finishing touches on a $200 million expansion for Alcon (Fort Worth, Texas), a Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) subsidiary. Designed by Ewing Cole Architects (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), the project expands the existing four-building, 850,000-square-foot optical lens production campus, with the addition of a 75,000-square-foot production building and a 30,000-square-foot tank farm.

Sanofi (NYSE:SNY) subsidiary Genzyme (Cambridge, Massachusetts) invested $200 million in an upgrade/renovation of its cell culture plant in Alston, Massachusetts. Dubbed "Project Rena," the project was built, designed and planned by a project team including Taurus Project Controls Consulting (Andover, Massachusetts), CRB Engineering (Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania) and Turner Construction (Boston).

From a regional standpoint, New England will have completed the most projects with the highest TIV, having finished 15 projects valued at $870 million during the second quarter of 2014. Next up is the Mid Atlantic, with 17 projects valued at $701 million. The top three was rounded out by the Great Lakes, with $465 million invested into completing 23 projects. The remaining activity is scattered across North America.

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Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three 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.