A Naval Complex Makes Way For a Novel Life Sciences District
The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard served for nearly two centuries as a strategic shipbuilding, maintenance and repair complex. About 40,000 people worked there at its peak in World War II when more than 600 naval vessels were built or repaired. Today, the Navy Yard is no less an engine of economic activity for the region. In fact, the 1,200-acre site has been undergoing redevelopment over the past 25 years that to date has seen more than $2 billion in public and private investment with $6 billion more in the pipeline.
The Navy Yard in 2025 is home to 15,000 employees working for 150 employers, many of which are key players in the Philadelphia region’s thriving life sciences industry, including Iovance Biotherapeutics, Adaptimmune, Coriell Life Sciences, VintaBio and bioMérieux.
Since acquiring the 1,200-acre Navy Yard site from the federal government in 2000, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), a public-private economic development partner of the City of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Navy Yard’s master developer Ensemble / Mosaic have joined forces in reimagining the Navy Yard’s profile from a former naval base to what is quickly becoming a live-work-play development with about 4,000 residential units, retail, green space and almost 1.3 million sq. ft. of life sciences manufacturing space planned, adding to its current 42,000 sq. ft. of lab space.
“The Navy Yard provides a uniquely integrated environment for life sciences companies to grow and thrive,” says Charlotte Merrick, PIDC’s director of Navy Yard marketing and communications. “It offers state-of-the-art lab, R&D, and manufacturing facilities just seven minutes from Philadelphia International Airport and 12 minutes from Philadelphia’s University City District.
“For companies with larger-scale or highly specialized needs,” she adds, “the Navy Yard also offers infrastructure-ready development sites suited for advanced manufacturing, R&D headquarters and GMP-compliant facilities.”
The region’s life science industry extends beyond the Navy Yard, including the University City District as another main hub where world-renowned universities, hospitals, and research institutions are located, including the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, The Wistar Institute and the University City Science Center.
Other key players contributing to the sector’s strength in the Philadelphia area are the Spring House Innovation Park and the Pennsylvania Biotech Center located in the Pennsylvania suburbs surrounding Philadelphia, the CRISP life sciences campus in Delaware and the Princeton West Innovation Campus in southern New Jersey. Ongoing developments also point to the region’s life sciences industry future, including the Bellwether District’s innovation campus and the Lower Schuylkill Innovation Campus.
Combined, these resources contributed to Philadelphia’s fourth place ranking in Colliers’ 2024 Life Science Report of 18 markets based on their ecosystems’ ability to support life sciences industry growth and the markets’ real estate inventory and absorption.
“Companies benefit from access to world-class talent drawn from the region’s top research universities and medical institutions, as well as workforce training programs designed specifically for the life sciences sector,” Merrick says.
Iovance Biotherapeutics plans to double its production of cancer therapy drugs at the Navy Yard.
‘Cellicon Valley the Clear Winner’
Greater Philadelphia is particularly well-positioned in the cell and gene therapy branch of the life sciences industry — it’s home to 10% of the world’s companies specializing in the field.
Fred Vogt, interim CEO and general counsel at Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc., says the decision to locate at the Navy Yard in 2019 was the result of an extensive evaluation for a preferred location. The California-based company produces tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy, including Amtagvi, the first FDA-approved T cell therapy for solid tumor indication, for people with cancer. “After performing a site selection process that reviewed 59 locations in 10 states, the Navy Yard and ‘Cellicon Valley’ was the clear winner,” says Vogt.
“The Navy Yard provides an ideal location near Philadelphia and other international airports,” he says. “Our Philadelphia manufacturing network currently serves commercial Amtagvi patients with advanced melanoma across the United States and will hopefully soon provide this novel cellular immunotherapy to commercial patients in many other countries.”
The company’s manufacturing network consists of Iovance’s internal manufacturing facility, the Iovance Cell Therapy Center (iCTC), and a contract manufacturer, Advanced Therapies, which helps ensure flexibility and ample capacity for both commercial and clinical production. Both are located in the Navy Yard. Iovance plans to more than double its current production capacity at the Navy Yard, adding hundreds of new jobs as part of an effort to ramp up cell therapy manufacturing at the site.
“We are also expanding capacity to fulfill our longer-term vision,” adds Vogt. “The iCTC, as built today, has capacity for more than 2,000 patients annually.
“Once we complete the ongoing buildout of existing shell space at iCTC, we expect to have total capacity for over 5,000 patients annually within a few years, and we are considering further expansions to the campus through additional construction,” notes Vogt. Additional expansion of the iCTC manufacturing campus is expected to provide capacity for over 10,000 patients annually.
“Iovance is very excited to be part of the rich cell and gene therapy ecosystem within greater Philadelphia,” Vogt stresses. “This area is the birthplace of many of these therapies, the home of leading academic institutions active in cell and gene therapy research and the emerging hub for innovative biotechnology companies as well as contract development and manufacturing organizations.”
This Investment Profile was prepared under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia. For more information, visit chamberphl.com.
