Swiss medical developer boosting Brooklyn Army Terminal incubator

RegenLab USA plans expansion at BioBAT facility

RegenLab CEO Antoine Turzi and 140 58th Street in Brooklyn (RegenLab, Wikimedia)
RegenLab CEO Antoine Turzi and 140 58th Street in Brooklyn (RegenLab, Wikimedia)

The life science incubator at the Brooklyn Army Terminal has officially debuted a fresh tenant.

RegenLab USA, a device manufacturer for the production of regenerative cell therapy, opened a research and manufacturing lab at the Brooklyn outpost this week, Crain’s reported. The Swiss company is reportedly looking to more than double its space in the next two years.

The initial stage of the company’s $10 million project takes up 15,000 square feet at the incubator. The initial part of the project cost $2.5 million and a lab expansion in May should cost another $3.5 million. The company ultimately expects to hit 35,000 square feet of space in 2023 for its Americas headquarters.

The research and manufacturing lab employs 40 people, but the company reportedly hopes to have 150 employees at the location by the end of next year. The site will serve as the headquarters for U.S. operations before it serves the entirety of the Americas.

BioBAT is part of New York City’s $1 billion push to establish the area as a biotech and life sciences hub and was established by a partnership between SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University and the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

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The biotech facility initially struggled to sign tenants after its opening in 2014, which the Wall Street Journal reported at the time was a symptom of the site’s distance from the hub of academic medical institutions on the Upper East Side.

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However, the former industrial building’s luck appears to be changing. NYEDC invested another $50 million in the incubator in July to expand its lab space, according to Crain’s. Other tenants at the facility https://www.biobat.nyc/tenants include AlgiKnit, Biotia and Cortecnet.

The life sciences sector is one of the strongest in real estate. After $33.1 billion of venture capital funding was invested in the industry in 2020, $26.7 billion was invested in the first half of 2021 alone. In New York City, 3 million square feet of new life sciences spaces has been proposed.

[Crain’s] — Holden Walter-Warner