PMB and Montgomery Street Partners announce approval on the first speculative purpose-built life sciences project in Boulder County, CO
PMB and Montgomery Street Partners announce approval on the first speculative purpose-built life sciences project in Boulder County, CO
This new 365,000 sq. ft. facility in Boulder County will break ground in Q2 of 2023 and complete in Q3 of 2024
SUPERIOR, CO, Aug 31, 2022 – PMB, a leading healthcare real estate developer, in partnership with Montgomery Street Partners, received Superior Town Board approval on its final development plan for Coal Creek Innovation Park at Downtown Superior giving PMB discretionary approval to construct the $280M purpose-built life sciences project. PMB has hired CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm, to market it for lease.
Located in Downtown Superior, the park will be the first speculative purpose-built life sciences project in Boulder County, an area with historically low vacancy and high demand for lab space. The project will break ground in early 2023 and the first phase will include an owner-furnished, 27,000 sq. ft. spec suite space to enable quick occupancy for growing companies in need of high-quality lab space.
Initial plans call for three office/lab buildings ranging in size from 85,000 sq. ft. to 150,000 sq. ft. and a fourth building with ground-floor retail and structured parking. It is thoughtfully designed to drive productivity and foster innovation. With efficient floor plates, 16’ floor-to-floor heights, and flexible infrastructure to accommodate a variety of office, lab, and R&D uses, Coal Creek Innovation Park is where life sciences companies can make their mark among Boulder County’s life science leaders. Plus, shared lab services will be available to all tenants, including RODI water, dedicated laboratory water, compressed air, glass wash and a lab waste system.
“Life sciences companies have extremely specific and technical needs for their space. Coal Creek Innovation Park is purposefully designed with these in mind—from 100% outdoor air return in the lab areas to generator back-up and expanded electrical load capacity. A biotech company that locates here can focus exclusively on its science as its real estate needs are already met,” said Nelson Udstuen, senior vice president with CBRE.
Located in the heart of Downtown Superior, the Coal Creek Innovation Park also offers a highly desirable location being 10 minutes from Boulder and 25 minutes from Denver. In addition, there is a 20-acre park, indoor and outdoor amenity spaces and miles of trails. The nearby RTD bus station, Flatiron Flyer and US 36 Bike Trail provide access to Denver and Boulder using multi-modal transportation.
Coal Creek Innovation Park will build on a wave of development occurring in Downtown Superior, located along the US-36 corridor between Denver and Boulder. The Superior Medical Center and Sport Stable are blocks away, and a slew of residential and mixed-use projects are under construction and scheduled to be completed in 2023.
“Coal Creek Innovation Park represents one of the last infill sites in Boulder County located South of Boulder with visibility from the US‐36 Hwy. It is also among the last available commercial sites in Downtown Superior, located steps from 1,050 apartments and homes, 42 acres of parks and open spaces, the new Town Plaza at Main Street, 70,000 sq. ft. of walkable retail, and 300,000 sq. ft. of commercial space including the Sports Stable which is a regional destination comprised of three ice rinks, indoor soccer field and Impact Sports that attracts 1M visitors per year.” Bill Jencks, senior vice president, PMB.
Coal Creek Innovation Park at Downtown Superior will tap into life sciences talent from across the region. Earlier this year, CBRE conducted an analysis of the top U.S. markets for life sciences talent. The Denver/Boulder region was named the 11th best market overall with the number of life sciences researchers increasing 20 percent from 2015 to 2020. The region led the rankings in one specific metric: Denver/Boulder is home to the greatest absolute number of bioengineers and biomedical engineers in the country. Similarly, Boulder has ranked No. 1 on Bloomberg’s Brain Concentration Index since the index launched in 2016.
“Life sciences companies are looking to the Boulder/Denver region as a place where they can plant their flag or grow their operations. They are attracted to Colorado’s highly educated and skilled workforce and ecosystem of educational and research institutions. While historically it has been difficult to find available lab space in Boulder County, projects like Coal Creek Innovation Park are helping to change that,” added Erik Abrahamson, senior vice president, CBRE.
Vacancy among Boulder life sciences properties stood at just 0.3 percent at the end of the second quarter, according to CBRE research. On the demand side, the market has maintained over 1 million square feet of active life sciences tenant requirements for nearly two years.
“There is a significant unmet need for institutional‐quality space, with the existing inventory largely comprised of small‐scale (<60,000 sq. ft.) converted single‐story flex product, which offer limited expansion opportunities for high‐growth and/or more mature life science companies. Coal Creek Innovation Park will fill the purpose-built lab space void in the market, delivering almost 400,000 sq. ft. of R&D specified lab space in Boulder County. We are also providing a combination of a generous tenant improvement allowance and up to 50,000 sq. ft. of speculative lab space to meet the needs of the market.” Ben Rosenfeld, senior vice president of development, PMB.
PMB will lead the development of the project with its Co-GP partner Montgomery Street Partners. Other partners on the project include CBRE to manage leasing, Perkins & Will leading the architecture and design, Affiliated Engineers Inc providing MEP engineering and BNBuilders providing pre-construction services.
For leasing and capital-related inquiries, please reach out to CBRE’s Erik Abrahamson at 720.315.4517 or [email protected]
