Rockville, MD – Advanced BioScience Laboratories, Inc. (ABL), a rapidly growing contract research/manufacturing organization (CRO/CMO) serving the biomedical community, will relocate and expand its corporate headquarters within Montgomery County in one of the largest leases signed by a biotech company in recent years.
Scheer Partners, the leading provider of fully integrated commercial real estate services for the health science industry in the Washington and Baltimore metropolitan areas, announced today that it has represented ABL in two 15-year leases totaling 107,000 square feet of space.
Robert Scheer, the founder and president of Scheer Partners, and Nate Crowe, a company vice president, negotiated on behalf of ABL in both lease deals.
In one of the transactions, ABL will expand its corporate offices as it relocates from Nicholson Lane in Kensington near White Flint Mall to the heart of the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center, where ABL will occupy all of 9800 Medical Center Drive, Building D.
The three-story, 72,000-square-foot building will serve as ABL’s administrative headquarters, housing R&D and cGMP manufacturing space. The facility is part of a four-building, 265,000-square-foot campus whose tenants include the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Amplimmune, Canon U.S. Life Sciences and Sanaria.
Separately, ABL has renegotiated its lease and will expand its high-demand vivarium to 35,000 square feet in Rockville, which has become necessary to keep up with ABL’s growing preclinical service and product development needs.
“We are excited about our new headquarters in Rockville, which will provide ABL with ample room to continue growing,” says Thomas VanCott, ABL’s president and CEO. “The team at Scheer Partners has done a terrific job securing the ideal space for us, and we look forward to their expertise, guidance and leadership as our corporate offices are constructed.”
With regard to the company’s new headquarters, Scheer Partners is providing comprehensive and fully integrated commercial real estate services, advising ABL on all aspects of the project through the company’s occupancy. These services include site analysis, strategic planning, financing, construction and project management, as ABL is committing about $10 million to renovate the facility.
“ABL’s new headquarters includes a complex and highly technical biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility, and we are working with the company to make sure that the build out proceeds in a cost-effective and efficient manner,” Scheer says.
ABL, whose roots date back to 1961 when it was established as Bionetics Research Laboratories, conducts research and provides resources to develop and evaluate vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics for infectious agents for academic, non-profit, private sector, and government clients, including NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and the National Cancer Institute.
Privately held ABL has more than 100 employees, and its new headquarters will allow it to significantly expand its work force and manufacturing capabilities over the next several years.
“We’re extremely pleased to have finalized these leases for ABL, a company with a long track-record of success that continues to grow in Maryland,” Scheer says, noting that ABL scouted several sites in the Washington region but decided to remain in Montgomery County.