Converting offices to life-science space

Converting or repurposing an existing office building presents five potential advantages over a new-build life-sciences development.

• Sustainability: Conversions contribute to sustainable development by repurposing existing structures instead of demolishing and rebuilding. Adaptive reuse not only helps preserve the architectural heritage of a community but also reduces waste generation and the consumption of new resources. This aligns with environmental goals, promoting a more sustainable and responsible approach to real estate development. 

• Time to market: Repurposing an existing building generally takes less time than starting a new development project. The lengthy processes of securing permits, conducting environmental impact assessments and architectural design are often expedited as the building’s core structure is already in place. This can lead to quicker occupancy and a faster return on investment, although results may vary.

• Location and accessibility: Existing buildings can be strategically located in areas with easy access to transportation networks and proximity to unique amenities, which is important for the recruitment and retention of talent. 

• Community integration: A repurposed building can become or remain an integral part of the existing neighbourhood fabric. Older buildings of character lend themselves well to place-making. 

• Cost savings: Converting an existing building may be less expensive than constructing a new one from scratch, although it depends on the degree of refurbishment required and on the local planning regime.

With appropriate renovations, an office can be transformed to include wet-lab space. The layout and floor plans may have to be adjusted to accommodate specialised equipment, laboratory spaces and office areas. Common requirements include greater slab-to-slab heights, increased power supply (and back-up), upgraded ventilation and air quality, fume-extraction systems, suitable plant and riser space for lab gases, secure delivery areas, higher floor loadings, hazardous-waste disposal, and a dedicated goods lift.

There are plenty of examples of office buildings being converted to life-sciences use: 

• 245 Hammersmith Road, London. Sometimes only part of an office building is converted. In 2022, the third floor of an 11-storey building was converted to deliver a new headquarters and R&D facility for Orchard Therapeutics. Extending to about 20,000sqft, it is an office and lab facility where the company’s office function and science operation can work together. The laboratory areas include general-purpose labs, containment level 2 (CL2) research labs, and a production room with space for a bioreactor.

• 85 Gray’s Inn Road, London. Set across five floors, this 29,000sqft former office building was leased to Warner Bros Television until 2021. The new owner, Clearbell Capital, transformed the building into a lab-enabled space, providing lab-standard drainage and a services zone. Prospective tenants can conduct their own fit-out, or work with the owners and lab fit-out specialists for a bespoke space.

• Joshua Dawson House, Dublin. Located in Dublin’s Dawson Street, this five-storey, over-basement, grade-A office was built in 2002. Extending to 16,000sqft, the building was home to two very different tenants – Dentons, a large law firm, and Nuritas, an Irish biotech company. One technical challenge related to Nuritas’s requirement of 330 kilovolt-amps (KVA) power load to facilitate its laboratory operation. The electricity supplier requires a separate substation for loads in excess of 200 KVA, and so a new substation had to be built. 

• 125 West End Avenue, New York. This eight-storey commercial building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side was built in 1929. The project involved the full recladding of the structure’s exterior and conversion of its 400,000sqft into a life sciences and research laboratory. Originally built for the Chrysler Motor Company and later occupied by Walt Disney/ABC broadcasting company, the first post-conversion tenant was Graviton Bioscience, which agreed to a 30,000sqft lease in 2023. 

There are more office-to-lab conversions planned, including London’s Victoria House, a Grade II listed building dating from the 1920s. Office-to-lab conversion is the most common form of adaptive reuse in life-sciences real estate, but not the only one.