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Life sciences real estate investor South Duvall and tenant Viriom Inc. celebrated the ceremonial opening of amenity-rich lab space at 1450 Research Boulevard in Rockville after what the developer called a “time intensive and detailed” process.
Following the ribbon cutting on Thursday, South Duvall Principal Matt Brown said significant challenges in delivering the new lab space ranged from an extended subdivision process to rock excavation surrounding the property.
“Overall, our team did a great job delivering this Class A space. The final product is incredible, and we’re extremely excited with how it’s turned out. We think this is the nicest lab conversion the county’s seen in many years,” Brown said.
South Duvall first identified the property as a potential investment opportunity in 2020. After a prolonged subdivision, South Duvall purchased the property for $4.45 million from Westat in December 2021.
After purchasing the building, South Duvall embarked on what Brown called “a mad dash to deliver the building as fast as we could,” a sprint requiring turning a “maze of cubicles and windowless offices” into 45,000 square feet of lab space.
To convert the former office building into a space capable of housing laboratory space, South Duvall and its construction team excavated the entire front of the building, overhauled the electrical system and relocated the elevator. Work also involved demolishing the building’s interior and cutting out atriums on the first and second floors.
“The scale of the renovation was immense,” Brown said.
The building’s first tenant Viriom Inc., which specializes in developing drugs fighting viruses and cancers from discovery through distribution, now occupies about 3,300 square feet of lab space.
After initially considering leasing space in San Diego, Viriom’s Chief Science Officer C. David Pauza said the company eventually decided on Rockville. The company came to that decision, he said, after considering the available workforce, as well as the convenience for a group of core employees critical to the firm’s productivity.
“I don’t think the talent pool in San Diego compares… to what we can access here,” Pauza said.
The space at 1450 Research Boulevard also provided Viriom Inc. with design flexibility. That adaptability allowed the company to shift its initial plans to dedicate 55% to the office and 45% to lab space.
However, Viriom Inc. decided it required less office space. Instead, the company dedicated additional space for freezers and extra storage.
Modifications also included adding three 20-foot lab benches and expanded and customized tissue culture space, which Pauza called one of Viriom Inc.’s “core technologies.”
“Now we have something… which just fits us perfectly, makes efficient use of our equipment and things we need to do. We’ve been extraordinarily productive since we moved in here,” Pauza said.
County and local elected officials who attended the ribbon cutting called the facility opening, an essential part of the region’s growing Life Sciences sector, which is already part of the fourth largest Life Sciences cluster in the nation, according to commercial real estate services firm JLL.
Montgomery County Economic Development Corp. expects the jurisdiction to add 4.2 million square feet of Life Science space in the next two years, which Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich said he hopes to double from the 10.6 million square feet of inventory the county had two years ago.
That lab space is in high demand in the area, especially the Interstate 270 corridor, where lab space vacancy fell below 1% at the end of 2022, according to commercial real estate services firm CBRE.
“We’ve been busy creating momentum. People understand it’s happening. We’re ready. We’re open. And we’re a very accommodating jurisdiction,” Elrich said.
Marji Graf, president and CEO of the Rockville Chamber of Commerce, said the additional lab space on Research Row gives the area an economic identity.
The formation of that identity, she said, is also boosted by having a concentration of Life Science firms in a consolidated location like 1450 Research.
“It’s very important because (companies) move here because of (companies) who are already here. Right? So it’s almost like car dealers, they’re all in a row because they want to get the customers, and they’ll go to what their needs are,” Graf said.
Collins Jones, a biotechnology professor at Montgomery College, said opening facilities like 1450 Research Boulevard and its ability to land firms like Viriom Inc. provides students a visible opportunity for the skills they develop in the college’s biotech program.
“Our facilities are actually modeled after biotech facilities. So we have a lot of the same equipment that you would see in most of the biotech companies here,” Jones said. “That really is our mission, to make students ready for entry-level jobs in the biotech industry.”
