Two new biotech hubs are sitting empty with no takers in Morrisville. Here’s why.
For the last six months, two giant life science hubs have sat directly across the street from each other on McCrimmon Parkway in Morrisville, brand-spanking-new — and empty.
Amid a post-pandemic construction boom, Pathway Triangle and Spark Life Science (or Spark LS), both billion-dollar projects, were “built on spec” without tenant commitments. They were also delivered around the same time at the end of 2024.
As of early June, they still have no takers — another reminder of the fickle and risky nature of speculative building. Especially when supply continues to outpace demand and leasing activity remains subdued.
Pathway Triangle’s owners, Massachusetts-based developer King Street Properties, said it’s seen “strong interest” for the core and shell of the first two buildings on its new 75-acre campus at 4880 McCrimmon Parkway, but “no leases to report.”
On the other side, the 109-acre Spark LS biotech campus, announced in 2022, is slowly filling the formerly wooded land near the airport and I-40. Its owners, North Carolina developer Trinity Capital and Miami Beach-based Starwood Capital, remain slightly more tight-lipped. They didn’t return calls for comment, though their landing page says they’re open for business.
In August 2019, the town extended McCrimmon Parkway to give roadway access to the then-undeveloped land. And in July 2021, Morrisville updated its zoning regulations to accommodate the mixed-use projects. (Separately, Trinity Capital owns Roxboro at Venable Center, a Class A office building in Durham, which delivered in 2022. It’s also sitting empty.)
Today, that influx of vacant space — more than one million square feet of purpose-built, “turn-key” biomanufacturing facilities — has flooded the market, driving up vacancy rates.
In Raleigh-Durham, investor-owned life sciences-related manufacturing space has jumped to 66.6% with the deliveries, according to CBRE’s 2025 first-quarter Life Science report.
In other words, out of some 2.3 million square feet of existing inventory, roughly 1.53 million square feet is unoccupied across the Triangle.
That’s roughly the size of 26 football fields.
‘No surprise’ at high vacancies
Some analysts are downplaying the glut of space.
“Elevated vacancy rates are no surprise,” said Kathy Gigac, managing director of Avison Young’s Raleigh-Durham office. There’s been a push to onshore medication manufacturing after COVID’s supply chain challenges, she said. The Triangle became a hotspot for private-owned investment.
“Developers and landlords took note,” she said. “Fast forward to today, over one million square feet of life science product hit the market essentially at once.” This wave of new products is anticipated to be well absorbed, she added, “but it will take some time.”
Even so, headwinds are rising. Among them: recent cuts to the National Institutes of Health under the Trump administration, which are squeezing startups from universities and research communities, said JP Price, a Raleigh-based senior research analyst with Cushman & Wakefield.
That lowers tenant demand for space, “contributing to the rising vacancy” across the Triangle, he said.
On the plus side: Rental rates have been relatively stable over the last few quarters. And no new projects are under construction.
A deceleration is expected to help rebalance supply and demand in the sector, according to Cushman & Wakeman’s Life Science March 2025 report.
Doubling down (or not)
In the face of economic uncertainty and rising costs, Pathway Triangle’s King Street is doubling down.
The firm recently broke ground on a 10,670-square-foot amenity center, “The Junction,” on its campus in Morrisville.
It will include a café, fitness center and an additional 10,000 square feet of outdoor space with a putting green, fire pit and yoga green. It’s slated to open in mid-2026.
“We’ve increased our activity with companies,” King Street’s Raleigh-based managing director Sara McTyeire, said in an email to The N&O this week. “We believe in the strength of the market.”
Pathway Triangle is the firm’s second purpose-built biomanufacturing campus. The first is Pathway Devens in Massachusetts. It also owns the 479,000 square-foot, nine-building life science park at 100-1000 Perimeter Park Drive, which is around the corner from Pathway.
Other developers, however, are hedging their bets.
Both Via Labs, a proposed 8-story lab building being built by Longfellow at Hub RTP, and Research Square, an 11-story lab building in downtown Durham being built by Sterling Bay, are waiting to pre-lease before starting construction, Axios reported.
This story was originally published June 16, 2025 at 7:00 AM.
