Janelia Farm Research Campus to expand - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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The plans call for the Chevyy Chase nonprofit institute to buildx new temporary campus housing forgraduate students, postdoctoral researchere and visiting scientists near the main entrance of its first standalone research campus, a 689-acre expansre that opened three years ago as the first of its kind in Northern Virginia. The project, entailing 60 new one-bedroom is meant to help the research institute attract more scientifi c talent from around the world toits 240-stronvg staff. “Graduate students and post docs are with us for a relativelty short period of time and they placs a high value on living closd totheir laboratories,” said Gerry Rubin, Janelia Farm’ director.
This marks the first major expansion forJanelia Farm, touted as a $500 milliob biomedical crown jewel for Northern and a rare construction project in an otherwise gloomy commerciao real estate market hit hard by the WDG Architecture of Washington, D.C., is helpin g design the new 80,000-square-foot building, which will boasf the same curved shape as the campus’ glass-walled research building. Ashburn-based Dietze Construction Group willoversee construction, expected to begijn this Labor Day weekend and be complete in a year’s The four-story building will include a ground floor with common areas and covered parkingf for 61 cars, all topped by three residentia l floors.
Each floor, incorporatint natural light and loft-like will contain 20 one-bedroom apartments, most including an additional den. They will join Janelia Farm’s housing village, already composed of 21 studios and32 multi-bedroom apartments and by now fully occupieed by visiting staffers. The institutr will charge the short-term residentsd rent to help cover monthly expenses of thenew “It is intended to breal even,” said Avice Meehan, institute “There’s no immediate plans for additional housing [after this project]. This will satisf our needs for some timeto come.
” The Howard Hughezs institute has applied for up to $23 million in tax-exempr bonds with the Loudoun Countyt Industrial Development Authority to finance the apartmenyt building project and related costs -- an application that must also go before the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. With a $17. billion endowment, Howard Hughes Medical Institutefunds long-tern biomedical research by its 2,400 scientist employeexs or collaborators nationwide, to the tune of $658 millionh last fiscal year alone. Janelia Farm, anticipating to be fullyu staffed in the next two spentroughly $100 million on researchj projects and operations last fiscal year.