The Next Thing in Life Sciences Facility Design and Construction with Christopher R. DiPaolo, President and Founder of PROTECS

January 8, 2024

BioBuzz has been connecting the life science workforce since 2009. We’ve built an expansive community in the Mid-Atlantic with a national readership that spans from Massachusettes to Florida, and New York to California. For our next chapter, we’re building a proprietary talent logistics model to help employers source and hire life science talentLearn more.

How do you stay ahead of change and know what’s coming around the corner? For companies to succeed in a world that is rapidly evolving, they need to have the right people and the right partners to help guide and advise them on their most critical projects and strategic decisions.

Some leaders seem to be able to see the future before it happens, having developed somewhat of a “sixth sense.” The Next Thing is a new series by BioBuzz that will highlight some of these leaders and how they are preparing their clients and/or their own businesses for what’s next in their field.

This first article in the series explores what’s next in facility design and construction for life sciences companies.

Facility Design-Build & Construction Management for Life Sciences and Advanced Tech

If you’re starting a facility project today, you’re faced with numerous challenges that seem to be ever-evolving. Companies are having to take on higher financing costs, battle supply chain delays, navigate labor shortages, and keep pace with a rapidly advancing technology landscape that makes speed to market more important than ever before.

All of these factors add new risks to capital project decisions, which is why many life sciences companies are looking for solution partners who can help them reduce costs, minimize risk, accelerate delivery and give them confidence in their path forward.

Christopher DiPaolo, President and Founder of PROTECS, is one of those leaders who is a pioneer for life sciences and advanced tech facility construction projects.

As a full-service design-build construction and project management company, PROTECS has served the life sciences and advanced tech markets for nearly 20 years. They have become the experts at executing a more efficient model for project delivery that is engineered to meet all of their clients’ strategic objectives and deliver successful facility projects in today’s market. 

“The big differentiator for PROTECS is that we run everything with a construction-led design-build approach, versus engineering-led which is how traditional firms run their projects,” shared DiPaolo.

PROTECS’ approach has accrued a lot of attention from companies who are prioritizing efficiency, cost, and speed. 

With traditional engineering-led design-build firms, the focus tends to emphasize on over-designing the project which significantly increases costs and timelines. This doesn’t take into account the full picture or the 360-degree view of the project and how it gets executed and maintained.

With PROTECS’ ‘Fast-Track’ construction-led design-build approach, the client’s goals and the unique specs of the project are at the forefront and the project is planned with the end goal in mind to deliver a new level of efficiency throughout the entire project lifecycle.

Delivering on Cost

PROTECS has perfected delivering what they promise to a budgeted cost structure. In fact, they are so good at this that they hold a patent on Target Costing for complex construction projects.

The key is their qualification and due diligence process accompanied with their historical data and target costing process. They can produce a Rough Order of Magnitude ($ROM) Cost Estimate based on historical cost data for similar facilities, adjusted for the local geographic market and inflation to provide their clients with a high, medium and low range budget.

“We’ve proven our model over and over again when comparing the $ROMs to final costs at project completion. Once we normalize change orders, with scope to scope, we’re within 2-3% of what we said it would be. And that’s unheard of really,” DiPaolo shared proudly.

For this approach to work well, it’s important for PROTECS to be involved from the very on-set of the project in order to have maximum impact and drive the design criteria to not only meet the performance, conformance and compliance requirements but also meet the cost parameters as well.  Since PROTECS is in it for the big picture of the design-build project and saving each client time and money, bringing them to the table early is best.

Trust

This approach is built on trust, which DiPaolo and his team have earned over their tenured careers.

“For our clients to be able to create new medicines, technologies, and cures, they need someone they trust to give them the confidence to do so. It’s our job to hold their hand, to guide them through the process, and bridge them between their science and products and the facility they need to deliver and manufacture their product or breakthrough.”

“We’re a very project-focused and goal-focused company. It’s our philosophy that when we launch a project, we provide the best collaborative team of professionals that can have over 200 years of experience, from conception to completion.”

“We have the unique experience in being engineers who are also developers, landlords, facility and property managers coupled with our design-build expertise, that bring our clients a 360 degree view of all the realities they will be faced with.  Through assembling best-in-class collaborative design and engineering professionals along with any required real estate brokers and development partners, we lead and align the project team toward all of our clients’ strategic goals from the very start. PROTECS is willing and capable to manage everything from site selection and preliminary master planning through facility construction. We lead the design efforts. We lead the real estate selection and assessments efforts. We lead the construction efforts. We’ll also lead the commissioning and qualification efforts. By acting as an extension of their organization, we free up clients’ time so they can focus on their day-to-day responsibilities. PROTECS acts as a client’s single point of contact throughout the entire project lifecycle, collaborating closely with owners and professional partners at every step to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.”

This approach puts a lot of authenticity in DiPaolo and his team since PROTECS shoulders the risk and guarantees performance, conformance, compliance, time to market and cost to ensure all clients’ strategic objectives and goals are met. And they are very good at that. 

Talent

DiPaolo knows PROTECS is able to successfully deliver hi-tech regulated projects at a superior level because of key individuals within the organization.

Jay McKenna, Vice President, Jeremy Gainey, Director of Field Operations, and Christian Swain, Director of Project Delivery are three of his team members that have been with him since the beginning and bring unparalleled experience and knowledge.

Another reason that PROTECS’ model stands out is the amount of horsepower that clients receive at no additional cost. Under the traditional model, most clients are accustomed to working with only one principal and whatever team of junior staff the firm has available for their project. However, PROTECS builds the team of experts that is right for the job, not just who is available, so they can bring the best talent and expertise for each unique job. 

“PROTECS brings in multiple principles from the start. We gather principal level involvement from the architect, the MEP and process engineers, commissioning/qualification consultants and us,” shared DiPaolo. “We bring 125 to 200 years of project specific experience around the table at a very early stage to provide the best approaches and solutions to meet the clients’ overall project requirements, whereas the other firms often only have one principle involved.”

What’s Next? Industry Trends

When it comes to what’s next in the industry, DiPaolo had some insights into what they are seeing in the marketplaces they are in.

Outsourcing

“I think the contract services of the world is going to expand from a lot of perspectives. With the cost of capital and investors slowing down, many companies will move to outsource solutions as much as possible, especially in R&D and manufacturing,” he shared.

Aside from contract services, DiPaolo sees growth in the micro sectors of biotechnology such as cell and gene therapy and radiopharmaceuticals. He also sees a lot of converging technologies within biotech, semiconductors, and AI that will impact the growth in those sectors, especially when it comes to reshoring and moving manufacturing back to the United States. PROTECS is well-positioned to deliver in all those areas.

Location

Location is another trend that DiPaolo is following closely and they are eyeing other markets to stay ahead of growing hi-tech regions. While historically, there’s been a lot of density around well-known areas like Boston, San Francisco, and Philadelphia, they are seeing great growth in secondary areas across the United States.

Salt Lake City, Utah and the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas areas are two regions that have growing innovation sectors that PROTECS is involved in. “These areas are showing very similar activity to what I saw over eight years ago in places like Philadelphia. The universities are driving the technology and attracting innovative biotechnology to the region, DiPaolo shared. 

A more local example of tier-two market growth is in Happy Valley near Penn State’s main campus where PROTECS recently completed a truly novel bioprocessing facility for the production of best-in-class cGMP ferrofluid based cell selection technologies, BioMagnetic Solutions. While not a traditional biotech market, the location aligned the company with the innovation and infrastructure emerging from Penn State’s world-leading expertise in supply chain management, materials, and analytical sciences.

The Bottom Line

While no one truly knows what the future holds, it’s important for companies to work with partners who understand what’s important and can help them to navigate what’s coming next in their industry.

Chris DiPaolo and his team at PROTECS have earned the reputation of being that partner and staying at the forefront to deliver results their clients can trust.