News Coverage

Hopkins biopark adds Howard Hughes Medical Institute

September 7, 2007

by Daniel J. Sernovitz, Baltimore Business Journal

The developers of an East Baltimore technology park have signed a new tenant for the first of their planned five-building complex, the developers said Friday.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a national nonprofit medical research organization, has signed a lease for 4,500 square feet at 855 N. Wolfe St. in the Science + Technology Park at Johns Hopkins.

"As a biomedical research company, it will not only participate in, but will also drive the growth of Baltimore's world-class research cluster," Scott Levitan, senior vice president and development director for the park, said in a news release.

The institute joins Johns Hopkins' Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences, which has taken 100,000 square feet in the 277,000-square-foot building slated to open in spring 2008. The Johns Hopkins institute has committed $14 million toward the cost of its space, to include offices, labs, research equipment and a minimally invasive surgical training center.

In July, Levitan said the developers have secured commitments from tenants for almost the entire building, but the Howard Hughes Medical Institute is only the second tenant to sign a lease in the building, at the corner of Ashland Avenue and North Wolfe Street.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, based in Chevy Chase, was founded in 1953 by Howard R. Hughes, the wealthy aviator and industrialist known for his reclusiveness later in his life. The nonprofit employs more than 2,600 people across the country and boasts an endowment of $16.3 billion.