Life Science Campus Attracts Denver/Boulder Talent

The Denver/Boulder area is one of the top life science markets in the US, according to a mid-year report from real estate firm Newmark. Commercial real estate company SteelWave has developed Infinite Labs, a life science campus in Louisville, CO, to attract this local talent. An existing laboratory structure was renovated, and new construction was added, resulting in a 166,458 sq ft facility that was completed in summer 2023. The project team consisted of Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects (design architect), MOA Architecture (architect of record), and Haselden Construction (general contractor). This life science building is equipped with laboratory, R&D space, cleanrooms (Class 100, ISO 9001 & 14001), and office space with amenities including breakout spaces, collaboration hubs, a cafe, and a wellness and fitness center. 

Infinite Labs life science campus in Louisville, CO. All images: David Lauer, photographer

Lab Design News spoke to Peter Llorente, senior managing director of SteelWave, about the development of the Infinite Labs campus and what it means for the growth of the Denver/Boulder life sciences market. 

Q: What were the motivations—the need, if you will—behind the creation of Colorado's Infinite Labs? Is it replacing an outdated existing facility or accommodating for new research for a new program?

A: The need for the facility was about addressing the growing audience and demand for life science space, particularly in Boulder County. Therefore, we looked at this as having the opportunity to build a first-of-its-kind creative life science project in Colorado, and to accommodate a growing industry of users that spans from life science to high-tech development and advanced manufacturing.

Q: What kinds of sustainability initiatives have been included in the design plan? Is the facility pursuing lead certification or something similar?

A: I would say from a sustainability standpoint, we are talking about a facility that was just sitting there being underutilized—the most exciting thing about this project regarding ESG is the upcycling of the building. By adopting adaptive reuse techniques and repurposing the existing building, we were able to significantly mitigate its ecological footprint.  We took a large square industrial building with no daylight and repurposed it into a cutting-edge creative biotech campus.  

We also poured lots of resources into outdoor areas to create an indoor-outdoor amenities zone including yoga, gym, sports courts, and pickle ball courts. We hope that companies that prioritize their employees’ work life balance, and overall well-being will value these aspects of the project. Infinite Labs will also play a crucial role in our eco-friendly beekeeping initiative, led by Alveole. We plan to integrate beehives into the project and currently manage beehives across our portfolio, nurturing an impressive population of over 400,000 bees.  

Our forward-looking vision includes an adjacent life science facility, encompassing approximately 70,000 square feet. This additional facility will seamlessly align with the existing building and double entry plaza and communal amenity hub. Like all our development projects, this new addition begins with measures to reduce energy and water usage, practices to minimize waste and carbon, the promotion of sustainable building practices, and the adherence to design and wellness certifications like LEED, WELL, and ENERGY STAR. Overall, the goal of these policies is to promote sustainable and environmentally responsible practices that benefit the local area, wider community, and the natural world.

Q: Can you talk about how the facility fits into Boulder County's life science marketplace? Are you looking to enhance an existing community, or get something started?

A: If you look at Boulder County and you look at how the users in the industry have evolved, what you find is that except for maybe a couple of purpose-built facilities like the labs in the incubator at the University of Colorado, or facilities led by various other large pharma groups like Pfizer, the market (unlike what you've seen in the east or west coast) really didn't have that true development of facilities to date, development that you would otherwise see in mature regions. What you've seen instead is that users have kept converted old industrial space starting from basically zero in infrastructure, except for walls, and are planning to build out these facilities themselves. 

If lab spaces existed in the vicinity over the last 20 years, we would be referring to second or third generation lab space that was built a long time ago and with older benching equipment and hoods, and things of that nature. SteelWave recognized the growing demand for this modern type of space, and we said, "We want this facility to be in Boulder County. We would like it to be within a certain amount of distance and minutes from the University of Colorado Research Center, the incubator. And ideally, if we could find a facility where we could leverage its inherent infrastructure that would serve useful for the life science environment, that would be ideal."  

Infinite Labs checks the box on all those things—it was built in the '90s and it was then a former disk-drive manufacturing facility. That particular environment at the time included the need for a high level of power, and redundant power, so significant backup generators were also required, with the demand for clear height in the space, plus systems that could provide clean water, vacuum systems, chemical storage—I can go down the list! All of those things are needed by most life science users in 2023, to one extent or another. We have been able to effectively leverage the infrastructure that existed in the building and that alone probably saved us $200 to $300 per square foot and we could additionally get to the project right away.  

From a timing standpoint of being able to 'go-to-market', our time was probably at least 50 percent or 60 percent less than if we were undertaking a new build. And certainly, from a cost standpoint, much lower. We have creative solutions for those life science users out there and at probably 80 percent of what it would cost for a newly constructed facility. 

Q: Is there anything particularly unique or groundbreaking about the facility or the design plan?

A: Again, the uniqueness goes back to the infrastructure that existed in the building. It's an almost 170,000-foot building, most of it on one single floor with high ceilings, which is all the critical infrastructure that you would need for life science. That in itself was unique; to find all this on location. Now the challenge was in harnessing our assets and being able to apply them to not just one large user, but to several smaller users throughout the facility.  

The other challenge in the building was because it's a large, deep building, bringing in natural lighting, we wanted to create an environment where people want to work all day, and one that would be inspiring to them. Our design team did a great job of finding solutions for that. We installed over 120 skylights in the building, for example—in any given space that you're standing in or sitting in, or working in, you can look up and see blue sky, even if your space is not necessarily along the window line. Our interior spaces provide that natural light solution that tenants today crave. 

This first of its kind campus in Colorado, this creative life science project interestingly has many of the same features that you'll see in creative office buildings on any of the coastal markets, whether it's east or west coast. You have areas where companies both inside and out can host events, readily available at Infinite Labs, where organizations can have training events, where people can have breakout meetings—employees, if you will, can do a lot of things for themselves in the sense of fitness, bike rooms, amenities on location. We even have yoga classes, an onsite personal trainer, and pickleball courts outside! Infinite Labs is a solution that addresses the well-being of a company's employees in a lot of different ways from not just the business side, but also the health and wellness side of the equation.

Q: What sorts of challenges did you encounter during the design and build process and how did you overcome them?

A: Restating the fact that you had this manufacturing facility pre-'Infinite'—we started with a manufacturing facility that has very large systems and the challenge we faced was being able to utilize these systems in ways that it wasn't necessarily designed for; addressing the needs of multiple companies at the same time, versus one company and multiple different types of applications.  

What we found was that our engineers were able to create solutions around being able to distribute power, clean air, plumbing, all these things. We have one user who has come in and they're a renewable energy company—but they needed access to our water purification system. So again, it's not at the same level of use that the system was originally designed for, but we were able to harness it and be able to provide these solutions to these different types of users. 

What we're finding is that the majority of companies that are in the building and are looking at the building are thus far life science-oriented. However, we are seeing high-tech development companies also come in and renewable energy companies, and advanced manufacturing users. Infinite Labs is, rightly, a building that has a lot of flexibility in it. 

Q: If a similar facility or program were to look at your lab for inspiration, what do you think they would take away as an example of what they should also implement in their lab?

A: First off, you need to be able to provide the lab environment to a diverse array of users. That's number one. Now, those user needs may vary, and it may be as simple as just having clean air come in and being exhausted out, but a lot of outfits and enterprises need 'specialty'; they have specialized uses such as water purification systems or vacuum or pressured air. So, we have provided all that. 

Then what we're also finding is that once the users are in, the people who work for those companies, some from a lot of different backgrounds and a lot of them now coming out of the tech industry, are used to having facilities that don't so much look like a hospital, but are far more inspiring and have the amenities and areas both inside and out that can be used again for meetings, for training, and for just taking a break. I think that I would say that it's not unique to the gateway markets of Boston or the San Francisco Bay Area or down in San Diego—but for Colorado, it certainly is.  

If someone were going to take inspiration from Infinite Labs, it's in our bringing all these features together, and with the sole goal of adhering to the absolute first class discipline of ensuring that whatever research one undertakes in life science and beyond, the resources are there, the facilities are there, but mixed within a creative environment—from the office portion of their space to in and around the common areas.