Posted on August 31, 2020 by Sarah Daniels in Content Partner, Features, Industrial, Lee & Associates, North Carolina, Office, Southeast

As companies extend their work-from-home policies for many traditional office jobs, office leasing in general is undergoing re-evaluation and leasing is slowing. But one sector of office space continues growing as space remains essential: life sciences office, laboratory and manufacturing space. Nowhere does this hold truer than in the Research Triangle in North Carolina.

The Triangle occupies a position of power as one of the top five major life sciences centers in the United States. STEM-oriented institutions including Duke, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University provide education, research opportunities and employment for the area’s highly educated workforce. Large life sciences companies (including giants such as Glaxo Smith Kline, Biogen, Lilly and Pfizer) have taken advantage of the area’s lower cost of living to set up research labs and manufacturing space to support technology and healthcare work.

A tenant and buyer representative for life sciences, technology and healthcare clients, Marlene Spritzer, Vice President of Lee & Associates Raleigh Durham, has witnessed firms from around the country relocate to the Triangle for years. Even before the pandemic, the area was attractive to businesses due to its wealth of resources and mild climate as well as the fact that 47 percent of the population holds bachelor’s degrees or higher. Those factors have also made the region a bastion for in-person office space in the midst of a wider transition to telecommuting.

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