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SeqCenter Expands Space in RIDC’s Chocolate Factory in Lawrenceville
The Chocolate Factory at RIDC’s Lawrenceville Technology Center
Pittsburgh, PA—July 6, 2023—SeqCenter, formerly Microbial Genome Sequencing Center, signed a lease amendment with Regional Industrial Development Corporation of Southwestern Pennsylvania (RIDC) for a 10-year extension and will be expanding from their 5,509 square feet of space in the Chocolate Factory building of RIDC’s Lawrenceville Technology Center to 9,481 square feet.
The expansion went into effect July 1, 2023 and includes new office space as well as an expansion of the existing lab space.
“When we moved into the Chocolate Factory in July 2022, we believed our current footprint would sustain our business for several years,” said Dan Snyder, Director of SeqCenter. “However, the increasing global demand for genetic sequencing coupled with regional life sciences industry growth accelerated our evolution, and we are thrilled that RIDC could accommodate this expansion.”
“The life sciences industry is a central part of Pittsburgh’s economy, and SeqCenter is a successful and fast-growing part of that industry,” said Donald F. Smith, Jr., RIDC President. “Together with companies like Predictive Oncology and LifeX, the Chocolate Factory and Lawrenceville as a whole are also becoming an important part of the region’s life sciences story. We’re proud of the role our Lawrenceville Technology Center, which also is home to Caterpillar and Evoqua in our Tech Forge building, has played in Lawrenceville’s resurgence.”
About RIDC:
The mission of the Regional Industrial Development Corporation of Southwestern PA is to catalyze and support economic growth and high-quality job creation through policy advocacy, real estate development and finance of projects that advance the public interest. A not-for-profit entity, RIDC has developed over 2,800 acres in 15 industrial and innovation parks and manages over 7 million square feet.
RIDC took ownership of Heppenstall Steel’s former 14-acre industrial site in 2002 with the vision of creating an urban technology park. Now called the Lawrenceville Technology Center, the historic site is comprised of three buildings: the former Heppenstall building, a 50,000 square-foot heavy industrial high-bay facility, which was built out for Carnegie Robotics, a spin-off from the nearby National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC); RIDC’s new Tech Forge, a 67,000 square foot high-tech and high efficiency flex building is home to Caterpillar’s Pittsburgh Automation Center and Aurora Innovation; and the Chocolate Factory.
The Chocolate Factory was originally an Atlantic & Pacific Company storehouse built on the site in 1930 before it became a chocolate factory for Geoffrey Boehm in the 1990s (now Edward Marc/the Milk Shake Factory), and has been completely renovated into a multi-tenant, office/high-tech manufacturing facility. Named the Chocolate Factory as a hat tip to its past, the 70,000 square-foot building is now home Setex Technologies (formerly nanoGriptech), LifeX and Predictive Oncology Inc. More information is available at www.ridc.org.
About SeqCenter
SeqCenter began as a core facility within the University of Pittsburgh in early 2015 before becoming a private lab in 2019. SeqCenter aims to provide researchers with high quality next generation sequencing data at a lower cost and industry leading turnaround times, delivering data and analysis within two weeks of receiving samples. https://www.seqcenter.com/
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Media Coverage:
SeqCenter signs lease for expanded space at the Chocolate Factory in Lawrenceville
