Two biotech companies are expanding their footprints at Industry City amid a citywide slowdown in life science leasing activity.
The firms, Cresilon and Rumi Scientific, signed multi-year leases to occupy more than 61,000 square feet of lab space within the Sunset Park business complex, Jeff Fein, senior vice president for leasing at Industry City, told Crain’s. The business park’s seven life science tenants now occupy more than 80,000 square feet of space as companies raise money and continue to grow into bigger lab spaces, Fein said.
Cresilon, a biotech company that produces a plant-based gel to stop serious bleeding, signed a 10-year lease to occupy 55,000 square feet, doubling the size of its current space at Industry City. The firm, which has raised more than $100 million since it launched in 2010, will use the expanded space to ramp up manufacturing capacity following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval last August of its gel for use in humans.
In addition to Cresilon’s expansion, drug discovery company Rumi Scientific rented a 6,000 square-foot lab for the next five years to develop therapies for neurological and kidney diseases. The firm is set to relocate from its existing space at the New York Blood Center on the Upper East Side, according to Industry City executives.
Both leases cost the companies between $30 and $40 per square foot, according to Fein, bringing the estimated minimum lease costs to $16.5 million for Cresilon and $922,500 for Rumi Scientific.
The city’s life science real estate market has slowed in recent years as firms struggled to raise capital and put off expansions because of economic uncertainty. Leasing activity has decelerated even more this year; companies leased 30,000 square feet of new lab space in the first quarter, down 60% from the 73,000 square feet rented during the same period in 2024, according to a May report from real estate broker CBRE.
Despite slow leasing activity, the city has invested in initiatives to bolster its life science market. Mayor Eric Adams launched the $1 billion LifeSciNYC initiative in 2021, committing to building 10 million square feet of lab space in the next decade.
Industry City’s other life science tenants include NYU Langone, which leases more than 100,000 square feet of lab and office space at the complex. Biotech companies Aanika Biosciences and AOM Therapeutics also occupy space at the hub.
