RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Holly Springs has landed yet another life sciences development, accelerating its transformation from a tiny commuter town to one of North Carolina’s largest hubs for commercial biomanufacturing.

The Yield, a life sciences campus focusing on biomanufacturing, office and lab space with retail amenities, will be built on 200 acres at the intersection of Green Oaks Parkway and Holly Springs New Hill Road.

The project’s developer, Crescent Communities, a Charlotte-based national real estate company, will formally launch the project Feb. 16 with an invitation-only “flipping of the dirt” groundbreaking ceremony at the site.

A rendering of The Yield in Holly Springs.

The first phase of the project, on 25 acres, will feature two 105,000-square-foot biomanufacturing buildings that are compliant with current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP), production standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Architct’s rendering of The Yield in Holly Springs. — O’Brien Atkins

A third building spanning 52,000 square feet will offer two stories of office and laboratory space designed to support the biomanufacturing buildings or demand from other office and life sciences users.

Work at the site began last fall, and the first building should be ready for occupancy by this summer.

New $1B life science campus coming to Morrisville: The Spark

A second phase will add 10 buildings with close to 1 million square feet. About 36,000 square feet of retail space will be built between the two phases.

The Yield will be adjacent to two major biomanufacturing sites, the world’s largest flu vaccine plant, run by Seqirus, and a planned $2 billion monoclonal antibodies plant – also the world’s largest of its kind – announced in 2021 by FUJIFILM Diosnyth. The Yield will also be two miles from a planned $550 million biologics manufacturing plant announced by biotech giant Amgen in 2021.

Crescent Communities will partner with CBRE Raleigh, a real estate services company, to lease facilities at The Yield.

“On the heels of Wake County’s largest economic development announcement related to FUJIFILM’s $2B biomanufacturing facility, The Yield is extremely well positioned to capture the continued demand for high-quality life science space in our market,” CBRE Raleigh’s Ann-Stewart Patterson said in a news release. “Crescent Communities’ team has been very thoughtful in their design of a world-class campus that is expected to attract top talent and further strengthen this life science research and industrial cluster in Holly Springs.”

Report: Demand for life science lab, R&D space, at record high, including Triangle

The project design team includes the Timmons GroupO’Brien Atkins AssociatesGilbane, and the Town of Holly Springs.

Holly Springs’ population has vaulted to over 41,000 people – almost five times its population in 2000 – as it has recruited biomanufacturing companies and leveraged its proximity to Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Research Triangle Park (RTP), in one of the nation’s fastest-growing regions. The town is about 20 miles southwest of Raleigh and 24 miles south of RTP.

“Community leaders in Holly Springs set out decades ago to create a welcoming infrastructure for the life sciences in general, and biomanufacturing in particular,” said Bill Bullock, senior vice president of economic development and statewide operations for the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. “The Yield is the latest example of the momentum this town has been able to generate, to become a global example of the best in life sciences economic development and thoughtful, intentional community development.”

The Yield will be “perfectly positioned to capture the Triangle region’s best talent,” according to a promotional brochure for the development. “With proximity to three tier-one research universities – Duke University, UNC Chapel Hill and NC State – this area is a leading brain hub with a highly skilled workforce.”

(C) N.C. Biotech Center

Biotech’s big year in NC: Nearly $4B in investment, more than 4,800 jobs in 2021