Levit Green’s amenities hopes to move biosciences out of cold, windowless laboratories

Just south of Texas Medical Center sits a new 296,000-square-foot building that on the outside looks more like a high-end office and restaurant space rather than a place where lab workers could discover the next gene therapy breakthrough. 

And that’s the point of Levit Green, a 53-acre life sciences campus by Hines, 2ML Real Estate Interests and Harrison Street that seeks to bring a mixed-use, nature-filled experience to life sciences real estate development. Phase One of Levit Green sits on a man-made lake surrounded by greenery and a boardwalk dotted with comfortable lounge chairs and a fire pit. Completed earlier this year, the five-story building came to life when  its first major tenant, Sino Biological, moved in this fall.  

Hines is planning Phase Two of Levit Green, which will include a seven-story, 400,000-square-foot building with biomanufacturing facilities as well as lab and office space. When complete, Levit Green will offer 4 million square feet of offices and labs. But with life science spaces leasing more slowly, the project’s timeline is undetermined.

In the first building, Hines added features like a fitness room, huge windows that flood the labs with natural light and food and beverage service provided by Nitecap Hospitality, the firm behind EaDough Bakery and Common Grounds Uncommon Coffee. It’s unusual for lab workers to have access to such amenities, but Hines hopes it will make the project stand out.

“They are very unlike other lab spaces,” said John Mooz, senior managing director at Hines. When he toured other life sciences buildings in coastal markets, Mooz said, he was shocked at how scientists toiled in basements or windowless spaces. He wanted Levit Green to look like a modern, high-end office. 

Beyond its looks, Levit Green’s Phase One has electrical and mechanical redundancies, including backup power to for the building. A series of 26-foot-tall fans on the roof provide what Hines says is a best-in-class exhaust system. And each floor is structured to reduce vibration from nearby roads to protect sensitive lab imaging equipment.

Tenants will be able to access a total of more than 30,000 square feet of turn-key lab suites, and an independent 25,000-square-foot incubator is planned to help give a boost to life sciences and biotech startups, Hines said.

Levit Green is part of a wave of new life sciences projects opening across Houston, including TMC’s Helix Park and Alexandria Real Estate’s campus in The Woodlands.

But these projects are opening when life sciences leasing activity has slowed significantly in the past year, as capital markets and venture capital funding dried up amid higher interest rates and the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in March.

“Venture capital dropped down and that’s had a definite impact (on the life sciences real estate industry overall),” Mooz said. But Houston offers lower capital costs and rental rates than Boston or San Francisco, Mooz said.

Other than its initial tenant, Levit Green hasn’t signed additional tenants, but Hines said it has a handful of letters of intent from companies seeking to lease space.

Chris Wadley, managing director at JLL, who is helping to market Levit Green’s space, says Houston’s life sciences sector is poised for substantial growth, particularly as these newer projects attract more mature life sciences firms.

“(Owners) knew it would take a couple of years to lease these buildings,” Wadley said of the entire region’s life sciences buildings. “People are still very optimistic next year, Houston is going to do well.”