Philadelphia’s University City ranks among the top U.S. areas for life sciences real estate growth
The area has added 1.09 million square feet of this specialized type of real estate in the last decade and more is in the pipeline.
Philadelphia’s University City has added 1.09 million square feet of life sciences space in the last decade and is among the top areas in the country which continue to grow this specialized type of real estate.
University City ranks ninth in the country for the most life sciences real estate built in the last decade, according to a new report with data from CommercialEdge, a commercial real estate leasing platform. The other top areas are in Boston, Seattle, and San Francisco.
University City continues to grow its life sciences real estate offerings with another 1.02 million square feet under construction, according to the report. That makes the area the seventh in the nation for projects in the pipeline.
The other six areas that ranked higher than Philadelphia include parts of Boston, San Diego, San Francisco, and Houston. Cambridge in Boston has the most life sciences real estate under construction at 2.13 million square feet, more than double the space in Philadelphia.
The report took into account life sciences real estate over 25,000 square feet built between January 2015 and December 2024. The report classified properties completed in 2025 as under-construction.
University City’s life sciences office vacancy rate sat at 16% in September 2024, according to the report.
Cambridge, which leads the country in the amount of life sciences space it has in the pipeline, had a vacancy of 18%. South San Francisco which has 1.2 million square feet of real estate in the pipeline had a vacancy rate of 27%.
University City’s life sciences growth is in part due to 3151 Market St., a 12-story building with 417,000 rentable square feet developed by Brandywine Realty Trust. According to the report, the building was completed in October 2024.
Another new life sciences building in the area is 3201 Cuthbert St. which spans 11 stories and nearly 520,000 square feet. The building was slated to be completed in the fall of 2024, according to an announcement from the university, and was available to lease starting spring 2025, according to a building brochure. It is one of two building projects classified as in the pipeline in the report.
“Today’s groundbreaking affirms Philadelphia’s growing reputation as a global hub for life sciences research,” said then-Mayor Jim Kenney, in a Drexel University statement from 2023 kicking off the new building’s construction. “This work also represents an important piece of the city’s economy going forward, one that will create thousands of new jobs and opportunities for our citizens.
Brandywine Realty Trust, in partnership with Drexel University, has led the development of Schuylkill Yards, the multibillion mixed-use project in University City. Brandywine CEO Jerry Sweeney in 2023 said they would wait to begin construction on a 800,000-square-foot tower there until, in part, the building was 50% pre-leased.
“Given its significant size, given the state of the overall U.S. economy, the volatility in interest rates, and uncertainty in financing, we would not start that project without a significant pre-lease and visibility on both additional leases being signed and financing certainty,” Sweeney, told the Philadelphia Business Journal at the time.