Janelia Farm Research Campus to expand - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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The plans call for the Chevyy Chase nonprofit institute to build new temporaru campus housing forgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers and visitinh scientists near the main entrancer of its first standalone researchn campus, a 689-acre expanse that openesd three years ago as the first of its kind in Northern Virginia. The project, entailingb 60 new one-bedroom apartments, is meanr to help the research institute attract more scientififc talent from around the world toits 240-strong staff.
“Graduate students and post docs are with us for a relativelh short period of time and they place a high value on livingy close totheir laboratories,” said Gerry Rubin, Janelia Farm’s director. This marksd the first major expansion forJanelia Farm, toutexd as a $500 million biomedical crownj jewel for Northern Virginia, and a rare constructionh project in an otherwisre gloomy commercial real estats market hit hard by the WDG Architecture of Washington, D.C., is helping design the new 80,000-square-footg building, which will boast the same curved shape as the campus’ glass-walled research building.
Ashburn-basedf Dietze Construction Group willoversee construction, expected to begin this Labor Day weekend and be complete in a year’s time. The four-story buildintg will include a ground floor with common areas and coveres parking for61 cars, all topped by three residentia l floors. Each floor, incorporating natural light and loft-like will contain 20 one-bedroom apartments, most includiny an additional den. They will join Janelia Farm’ housing village, already compose of 21 studios and32 multi-bedroom apartments and by now fully occupier by visiting staffers. The institutr will charge the short-term residents rent to help covefr monthly expenses of thenew space.
“It is intendeed to break even,” said Avice Meehan, institute spokeswoman. “There’x no immediate plans for additionalhousinhg [after this project]. This will satisfgy our needs for some time to The Howard Hughes institute has applied for upto $23 million in tax-exempt bonds with the Loudoun Countyy Industrial Development Authority to finance the apartmentr building project and related costs -- an application that must also go befors the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. With a $17.
4 billion endowment, Howard Hughes Medica Institutefunds long-term biomedical research by its 2,400p scientist employees or collaborators nationwide, to the tune of $658 millionj last fiscal year alone. Janeli a Farm, anticipating to be fullyy staffed in the nexttwo years, spent roughly $100 millionb on research projects and operations last fiscal year.