Fulton Labs announces topping out

Fulton Labs caught some rays over the weekend.

Blogs are okay, but the best source for information is always from the best source: the source itself.

Tuesday, Fulton Labs announced the topping out of the building at 400 North Aberdeen in Fulton Market. That keeps the facility on track to open early next year.

Here’s the text of the announcement, which can be seen in its entirety at the link above:

CHICAGO — March 23, 2021 — Trammell Crow Company (TCC), one of the largest commercial real estate developers in the United States, today announced it has topped out the construction on its Fulton Labs at 400 N. Aberdeen development. The facility is a 423,454 square-foot best-in-class laboratory building that the company is developing to help meet rapidly expanding demand for Class A lab space in the Chicago region, an area that has had chronic shortages of such space for decades.

The company broke ground on the development in July 2020 and anticipates completing the facility on schedule by Q1 of 2022. Portal Innovations, a premier venture development platform that bridges scientific ideation and value creation in life science, medtech and bioinformatics, has already signed a lease and will occupy a full 35,000-square-foot floor upon the building’s completion.

“After the past few years of working toward making this hub of life science innovation in Chicago possible, it is rewarding to see it all begin to come together,” said Morgan Blaska, Senior Associate for Trammell Crow Company. “With the community of life sciences tenants strengthening in our Fulton Labs at 1375 W. Fulton facility, coupled with securing our first lease at 400 N. Aberdeen and achieving this milestone in the construction process, we’re excited to see the continuing impact that our investment in purpose-built wet and dry lab space is having on the community.”

Power Construction is the general contractor on the project, ESG Architects is supplying design and architectural services, CRB is providing lab planning and engineering design support, and CBRE is directing the life sciences transaction and advisory work.

“With our decades of construction experience in Chicago, it is exciting to be a part of a project like this that will help solve the chronic shortage of lab space in the Chicago area,” said Steve Jackson, Vice President at Power Construction. “Our expertise in this field, along with our partnership with groups like CRB and ESG, allows us to be a part of a much-needed facility that will foster collaboration and innovation for life science companies.”

Of the building’s 16 floors, 12 are dedicated to wet or dry lab space, including one full floor of shared lab space managed and programmed by Portal Innovations. The facility’s features are designed to allow for flexibility and scalability, such as column-free and long-span layouts. The facility has been designed to serve the robust infrastructure requirements for office and lab users alike, while also providing unique advances in building technology, such as View Smart Windows that automatically adjust the tint throughout the day to allow for minimized heat, UV damage, glare, and pathogens, while still providing sunlight to tenants.