Life science REIT IQHQ said Tuesday it had entered into an early lease renewal and long-term extension with Generate:Biomedicines at the Innovation Park life science district in Andover, MA. Innovation Park houses Generate’s 75,000-square-foot cryogenic electron microscopy laboratory, one of the largest laboratories of its type in the U.S.

IQHQ acquired the Innovation Park campus between 2020 and 2021 and developed it into a 340,000-square-foot life science hub for leading biotechnology and life science manufacturing companies in the greater Boston market. “We are proud that Generate:Biomedicines, a global leader in generative biology, has made a long-term commitment at IQHQ’s Innovation Park district to accelerate breakthroughs in therapeutic discovery and development at their cutting-edge CryoEM laboratory,” said Tracy Murphy, co-CEO and co-founder of IQHQ.

Innovation Park is one of four life science districts IQHQ owns in Greater Boston. Leasing at the park is overseen by Colliers’ Curtis Cole and Tim Allen.

CH Realty Partners secured a $50 million loan to refinance its 150,000-square-foot industrial facility in the Greenville-Spartanburg market. The facility, located at 260 Midway Dr. Union, South Carolina, was a build-to-suit designed for bio-tech company MycoWorks. The refinancing with 3650 Capital will enable MycoWorks to expand its production capacity. 

The facility is a hub for MycoWorks, known for using mycelium, a mushroom-based material used to create leather alternatives. The firm’s proprietary Fine Mycelium platform has enabled a new class of materials that are the next evolution in mycelium.

Built in 2023, the facility’s design and location on 25 acres are tailored to MycoWorks’ unique manufacturing needs. The plant utilizes robotics, digital analytics, and artificial intelligence to automate 80% of its production process, providing high-quality material at a scalable level.

The facility provides over 350 jobs in the City of Union. 

FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies will invest $1.2 billion to expand its biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, creating 680 new jobs in Wake County. Initial investments of the FUJIFILM’s Holly Springs operation included $2 billion in 2021. The company claims it’s the largest end-to-end biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility in North America. Holly

FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies’ expansion includes an additional large-scale monoclonal antibody Drug Substance manufacturing capacity that will support the company’s growing biologics CDMO business. The project will also include two additional drug substance manufacturing buildings, a shared headblock building with administrative space, as well as expansions of utilities, lab, and warehouse buildings currently under construction.

The average salary for new positions at FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies will be $109,923, which is nearly 50% higher than Wake County’s average wage of $74,866.

The Japanese contract drug manufacturer will receive $69.2 million in incentives from the state as well as Wake County and Holly Springs if it meets hiring and investment targets.