As we explored in last April’s In Business Magazine cover story, “Our Bioscience Economy,” a life sciences boom is underway in Phoenix, making healthcare and bioscience among the fastest-growing industries in the Greater Phoenix marketplace — and Park Central is at the heart of it, with plans for a new life sciences hub on site.
The project’s development team has created an exciting conceptual design for an 80,000-square-foot life sciences facility in the project’s Burgbacher Building, the largest of the original buildings on site. The hub can be divisible into separate life sciences laboratories ranging from 5,000 to 50,000 square feet.
The new facility will have the capacity to accommodate 40 lab modules and 28 support lab modules. The efficient rectangle shape of the building will allow lab users maximum flexibility and the building boasts 6,000-amp service. High 16-foot ceilings, ability for advanced air conditioning systems, and exhaust penetrations will enhance the experience for today’s life science companies.
Plaza Companies and Tucson’s Holualoa Companies have teamed up to redevelop Park Central into a vibrant destination, which once was the city’s first official large-scale shopping mall. The companies have transitioned the expansive space from a retail center to an almost 500,000-square-foot bustling community hub ideal for playing, working, congregating and celebrating the arts.
Stan Shafer, chief operating officer of Holualoa Companies, believes the new life sciences hub will continue the extensive momentum experienced at Park Central the past few years.
“We are seeing central and downtown Phoenix emerge as one of the true life sciences hubs in the western United States,” says Sharon Harper, chairman and CEO of Plaza Companies. “This new life sciences hub will create synergies with the many healthcare-related entities already at Park Central and nearby, and will be a tremendous opportunity for innovative companies to find an ideal location.”
Photo courtesy of Park Central
