Top Clusters Endure, But New Players Emerge
November 20, 2020
JLL in late July released its 2020 U.S. Life Sciences Outlook, including the firm’s annual cluster ranking based on employment and firm concentration, venture capital and NIH funding, lab supply and market occupancy rate.
Surprise: Boston, San Francisco and San Diego rank Nos. 1, 2 and 3, with VC funding a big reason why. Those three ecosystems alone captured 70% of all venture capital investment for 2019.
“This initial infusion of capital is critical to space demand,” said JLL. Hence the 2.7 million sq. ft. in development in Boston and the 4 million sq. ft. rising in the Bay Area, with San Diego’s pipeline at 1 million sq. ft. Moreover, the “concentration of talent, academic prowess and influx of state-of-the-art new supply allowed Boston, San Francisco and San Diego to command year-over-year rent growth in the high single and double digits, depending on submarket, in 2020,” JLL reported.