On September 12, the 51-year-old
University City Science Center celebrated the latest addition to its ever-expanding West Philadelphia campus, now home to more than two million square feet of lab and office space.
Known as 3737 Science Center and located at 3737 Market Street, the 13-story glass tower was developed jointly by the Science Center and
Wexford Science & Technology. The $115 million building is already at 82 percent capacity.
Indeed, interest in the space from potential life-science and healthcare tenants was so consistently strong throughout construction that an extra two floors (over the originally-planned 11) were added to the plan.
Spark Therapeutics, a gene therapy startup, is occupying the building's top floor. With
Penn Medicine as the anchor tenant, other residents include the
Penn Institute for Rehabilitation Medicine and, in the tower's ground-floor retail space, the
Corner Bakery Cafe, which is expected to open by the end of this year.
3737 Science Center is the campus' 16th building. At nearby 3601 Market Street, the Science Center is currently constructing a 20-story, $110 million residential tower,
which broke ground last year. That high-rise, according to President and CEO Stephen Tang, is part of the campus' current philosophy "to be a place to live, work
and play," he says. "Not just work, which is quite frankly what we've been doing for most of our 51-year history."
"We're trying to become a world-class innovation center across University City and not just across the Science Center's campus," he adds. "We really want to be a vibrant center. And that includes attracting smart, creative and innovative people to our campus to live, as well as to work."
Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Stephen Tang, University City Science Center
The University City Science Center has partnered with Flying Kite to showcase innovation in Greater Philadelphia.