Colorado’s $14.5 billion biotech and pharmaceutical industry appears to be rising in recognition, according to new reports. The Denver/Boulder biotech market has risen recently across several different areas. Here’s a look at how the industry is expanding or simply holding its own.
The Companies
There’s a semi-comprehensive list of every biotech, pharmaceutical & life science company out here, and it highlights the significant collection of biotech companies in the Denver and Boulder areas. The new information comes from the JLL Life Sciences Report, which cites “recently signed lease deals this summer” and a year-over-year boost of $280 million in NIH funding. The report’s conclusion? The Denver/Boulder biotech office market ranks 13 in the nation, and is “gaining attention on national scale.”
Growth Areas
One county seeing noteable growth: Jefferson. From the report:
“Jefferson County is increasingly a go-to locale for growing biotech companies due to easy access from neighboring Boulder, Broomfield and Denver counties.”
While not growing as much, the southeast suburban Denver area is still going strong in the area of life sciences across the board, and Boulder’s surrounding areas also seem poised to fully employ those in the Boulder area:
“Longmont and Gunbarrel are beginning to be good, low-cost alternatives with access to the Boulder workforce. Longmont has a supply of flex and light industrial buildings that have infrastructure in place to convert to lab space.”
Though the percentage of available space has constricted recently in the field, the Denver/Boulder biotech market looks like it will remain healthy for years to come.
Image: Flickr / Larry Johnson