Business View Civil and Municipal | February 2021

33 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL FEBRUARY 2021 align with those that were thriving in the state before the pandemic hit. These include manufacturing, technology, life sciences, agriculture, transportation & logistics, and others identified by Governor Pritzker’s 5-year economic plan as high-growth potential industries. For example, Illinois’ growing life sciences industry has been essential to the fight against COVID-19. From legacy companies such as Abbott, AbbVie, and Horizon, to startups spun out of the state’s 10 high or very high level research universities, to hundreds of thousands of square feet of new wet lab space being developed in 2020, Illinois’ life sciences industry is thriving. Just recently, ground was broken on Fulton Labs, a 423,454-square-foot facility in Chicago that will span 16 floors (including 12 floors of advanced wet and dry lab spaces). And Sterling Bay opened The Labs, a redeveloped,125,000- square-foot medical research lab in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. The State of Illinois is paving the way for more new high tech lab space with the launch of a $9 million capital program aimed at expanding access to space that will lead to more research and development as well as important breakthroughs in medicine and life sciences. The program will help attract more companies to Illinois that are doing this important work. Illinois’ advantages in life sciences are notable when comparing the state’s biopharma industry with Massachusetts; Illinois has 12,000 more workers and wages are on average $20,000 less, largely due to less expensive real estate and a lower cost of living. Illinois is poised to compete for the industry’s growing demand in the years ahead. Regardless of industry, its combination of qualified workforce and a competitive cost of doing business make Illinois attractive to companies considering expansions or relocations, even in light of COVID-19. Companies that have announced expansions or relocations in Illinois in 2020 include: INTERSECT I LL INOI S