Trammell Crow JV Tops Out Chicago Life Science Project

A joint venture between Trammell Crow Co. and Beacon Capital Partners has topped out Hyde Park Labs, a 302,388-square-foot life science development in Chicago’s South Side neighborhood. Base completion is scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year, with first tenants expected to move in by early 2025.

The developer started vertical construction on the project last February. Earlier this month, CalSTRS provided a $136 million loan maturing in July 2025, public records show.

Development partners include general contractors Power Construction and Ujamaa Construction, along with architecture firms Elkus Manfredi Architects and Interactive Design Architects. CBRE Executive Vice President Dan Lyne and Advisor Brandon Green are spearheading the leasing efforts.

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The University of Chicago has already preleased 55,000 square feet at the 13-story tower. UChicago partnered with CIC for the creation of a lab incubator supporting start-up companies and early-stage science research.

According to an Avison Young report, the Chicago market had 509,360 square feet of lab/R&D space under development in the fourth quarter of last year. A total of 54.7 percent of the approximately 1.9 million-square-foot existing inventory was vacant at the time.

Hyde Park Labs, up close

Part of the second phase of a mixed-use development dubbed Harper Court, Hyde Park Labs will consist of nine full floors of lab and office space atop four levels of parking, one of which will be below-grade. The mid-rise averages 34,450-square-foot floorplates and will have 14.5- and 15.5-foot floor-to-ceiling windows, three passenger elevators and about 4,200 square feet of chemical storage space.

Other features at the Class A building are set to include a lobby, first-floor retail space and 40,000 square feet of amenity space, comprising private terraces on every level, an indoor bar and lounge, an executive boardroom, a STEM engagement center for students on the ground floor and a fifth-floor terrace—dubbed The Lawn—with grills and firepits. The facility was designed according to LEED and WELL standards.

The transit-oriented building is at 5207 Harper Court, close to a host of dining and retail opportunities and 7 miles from downtown Chicago. Chicago Midway International Airport is 13 miles away.

The 650,000-square-foot first phase of the Harper Court mixed-use development came online in 2013. Already-completed buildings within the master plan include a 12-story office tower that houses UChicago’s administrative offices, a 131-key hotel and more than 80,000 square feet of retail space.

Trammell Crow’s life science expansion

Over the last decade, Trammell Crow has developed more than $5.2 billion worth of laboratories, health-care real estate and life science assets, totaling about 6 million square feet, across the U.S.

In July, a partnership between TCC and CBRE Investment Management broke ground on a 234,000-square-foot life science development in Redwood City, Calif. The five-floor building is expected to come online by the end of the year.

A few months earlier, the firm announced the redevelopment of a 1 million-square-foot, mixed-use campus in Boston. The two-phase project is set to feature 771,000 square feet of life science, office and retail space, along with a residential component.