The tenant roster for one of Colorado's largest life science campuses is getting longer as biotech companies across the country gradually shed some of their real estate hesitations.
Blackstone's BioMed Realty scored a deal with VitriVax to anchor one of 24 buildings that comprise Flatiron Park, a more than 1 million-square-foot campus that has long served as the nucleus for the Denver area's biotech market. The more than 31,450-square-foot lease at 5500 Central Ave. in Boulder will expand the company's existing headquarters, and lands just a few months after it closed a funding round to improve vaccine access and immunization coverage.
The Boulder-based company, founded in 2014, develops formulation technology for vaccines, teaming up with larger pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms to integrate the tech into new and existing products. Remaining in Boulder "was a deliberate decision," Kimberly Erickson, the company's vice president of operations, said in a statement.
"Our scientific roots are closely tied to the University of Colorado, and proximity to CU's research community, talent pipeline and collaborative ecosystem remains strategically important as we scale," Erickson said.
VitriVax's expansion underscores growing demand for life science real estate as the sector dethaws from its post-pandemic freeze, with other deals serving as bright spots in some of the nation's biggest biotech hubs, such as Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego.
Bullish on Boulder
After years of significant construction and leasing momentum, many biotech hubs across the United States failed to keep pace with the surging construction pipeline, sending regional vacancy rates soaring and developers scrambling to fill large blocks of specialized space.
The dropoff in venture funding, delayed clinical timelines, widespread layoffs and stalled capital projects all collided in recent years to exacerbate the oversupply dynamic.
Leasing for lab space slowed to what JLL described as a "glacial pace" in early 2025. By the end of last year, more than 61 million square feet of available biotech real estate was sitting around, weighing down the national market, according to one of the brokerage's recent reports. The U.S. life science vacancy rate has spiked to about 27%, but the national availability rate ended last year at more than 31%.
"We're witnessing a historic market correction that, while painful in the short term, is setting the stage for a more sustainable and innovative future," Travis McCready, JLL's head of life sciences for the Americas markets, said in the report.
For VitriVax, the developer's recent funding round provided the capital to hire and invest in its physical real estate expansion. It's not the only firm in expansion mode, helping signal optimism for life science real estate stakeholders.
US biotech bright spots
Late last year, BioMed scored a 15-year, full-building lease with CordenPharma at 5505 Central Ave., also in Flatiron Park. The property was Boulder's first purpose-built speculative lab building and is just a short way from VitriVax's future headquarters.
CordenPharma's new 64,000-square-foot property, next door to the Switzerland-based biotech giant's peptide manufacturing facility on 55th Street, will be used to house its growing research and development operations. The lease was part of an ongoing investment the drug maker is funneling into expanding its Boulder hub, the total for which is expected to exceed $1 billion.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, Natera, which makes noninvasive tests to screen for conditions such as cancer and fetal abnormalities, plans to occupy 62,969 square feet at the Brittan West campus in San Carlos, a research and development facility that was completed in 2024 as part of the Peninsula life sciences hub.
Life sciences vacancy in the Bay Area declined in the fourth quarter of 2025 as leasing activity surged, according to CBRE Research.
In Boston, Danish drugmaker Zealand Pharma finalized a deal earlier this month with Healthpeak Properties for about 55,000 square feet at the Cambridgepark Drive campus. Once it officially moves into the building, the company will land in the backyards of other Boston-area biotech conglomerates such as Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Roche Group — all of which are racing to capitalize on the rising popularity of GLP-1s and other weight-loss drugs.
Scientific superintelligence startup Lila Sciences inked one of the largest office deals in the Boston area last year with a 235,000-square-foot commitment to anchor the new Alewife Park District campus in Cambridge. Medical device company TransMedics is also planning a major headquarters expansion, signing a lease in January for nearly 500,000 square feet in Somerville.