Budd Bioworks Developing 450,000 Square Feet of cGMP and office/lab space in Philly

 By David Gross

There's been a lot of news lately about office to lab conversions, but North Philadelphia has ample industrial properties ripe for conversion to biomanufacturing facilities.  The Budd Company of Philadelphia was founded over 100 years to manufacture steel frames for automobiles.  Now 450,000 square feet of its old facility will be converted to 300,000 of cGMP manufacturing space along with 150,000 of lab/office.

While lease rates for these properties tend to be in the teens, the property was acquired at auction for just teens per foot.  The landlord is targeting gene therapy and "older" forms of biologics for the facility, which could make it ripe for biosimilars.