Life Sciences Unicorn Set to Open ‘Forever Lab’ in Austin

A six-building campus to house life sciences companies is planned for Northeast Austin, a project that’s expected to provide a major boost to the burgeoning business sector — and it’s already filling up.

A groundbreaking for the campus at 3600 Breakthrough Loop near Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s facility in North Austin took place Sept. 11 with city and regional officials in attendance as well as representatives of California-based Tarlton Properties, which is building it.

BillionToOne, a molecular diagnostics company that develops DNA-based tests to detect health problems, will occupy the first building, which will total 220,000 square feet. That’s roughly the size of two Walmarts. BillionToOne is expected to be able to occupy the building by the end of 2026, Tarlton Properties CEO John Tarlton said.

BillionToOne achieved “unicorn” status in June when it raised $130 million in a series D round and clocked a valuation above $1 billion. The milestone came roughly eight years after it was founded in 2016. Both Tarlton Properties and BillionToOne are based in Menlo Park, California.

In total, the six-building campus should bring around 1 million square feet of life sciences space to the Austin market, Tarlton said.

It’s not clear when construction of the other five buildings will start. Tarlton said information won’t be released until the buildings are approved for construction. Overall, however, he said Tarlton Properties — which has developed a variety of life science facilities in California’s Bay Area — is bullish on the Austin market because of its quality of life and large number of universities in Central Texas.

“We expect that with the expansion of Dell Medical School that (the University of Texas) is going to be on a trajectory to also be one of the premier generators of life science intellectual property in the world,” Tarlton said. “And so we want to be there.”

Other partners in the burgeoning campus include STG Design, which is overseeing architecture of the first building. White Construction is general contractor. 

No incentives are being provided to the project, said Oguzhan Atay, CEO and co-founder of BillionToOne. But he said Texas’ business friendly climate and the ability to begin operations in the region within his company’s desired timeline are big reasons that it’s coming to the area.

“The incentive was essentially the timeline, and if you are business friendly,” Atay said. “That is incentive enough for us — that is so much more important, in terms of our growth and economics, than any financial incentive that any city could give us.”

BillionToOne’s expansion plans add some silver lining to a relatively dark year for relocation and expansion announcements.

BillionToOne will use the building to operate a “forever lab” that can process its tests from around the country as well as for other research and development purposes, he said. Once the lab is fully functional it should employ more than 1,000 employees, he said.

“This is going to be the first and the largest lab that we have built,” Atay said. “We, in fact, call it our forever lab, because the lab capacity of this large facility will be sufficient to process up to 6 million tests per year.”

Ed Latson, CEO of Opportunity Austin, said the planned life science campus will help the region grow its economy in a cutting-edge sector.

“This move not only strengthens our position as a burgeoning life sciences hub but also showcases Austin’s unique technology foundation that continues to attract world-class companies,” Latson said in a statement.

According to Opportunity Austin, there are over 300 life science companies in the area that employ more than 21,000 people. 

To view this story in the Austin Business Journal, CLICK HERE.