Travis McCready, head of life sciences, Americas markets, JLL, was a guest on the latest episode of the REIT Report.
Speaking in conjunction with the release of JLL’s 2023 Life Sciences Industry and Real Estate Perspective, McCready noted that while Boston and San Francisco remain leading life science markets on a national and international level, other markets in the United States are showing signs of growth and vitality.
“The sciences are no longer the province of just the coasts. Great ideas, great companies, are finding capital in other markets that a decade ago, perhaps, one might not have considered for the life sciences,” McCready said, pointing to Boulder, Colorado, and Salt Lake City as examples.
McCready said he is “incredibly bullish on the diversity of locations for the life sciences. The size and concentration will always remain the most acute in Boston, San Diego, and San Francisco, but I think the real story is less about the size and concentration and more about the numeracy of these markets across the U.S.”
Elsewhere in the interview, McCready said that capital flows into the life science market have been depressed in 2023 after the “sugar highs” of 2020-2022 but should return to a positive, albeit slower, growth trajectory in 2024.
He also noted that attention needs to be paid to growing the biomanufacturing ecosystem in the U.S., alongside promoting the availability of talent. “We simply don’t have enough people to grow this industry at the rate we would all expect.”