Riverside Labs Berlin-Mitte: European Life Science Lighthouse Project Reaches Foundation Stone Ceremony Just 15 Months After Building Application

With today's laying of the foundation stone, Riverside Labs Berlin-Mitte has reached a key milestone. The life science real estate project by iQ spaces, developed in partnership with UBS Asset Management, is being built in the heart of the Health Innovation Quarter Berlin-Mitte – one of the most important innovation locations for life sciences and the healthcare industry in Germany. The ten-storey building with a gross floor area of around 20,000 m² and an investment volume of around 200 million euros sets new standards for research and laboratory properties in Germany. Completion is scheduled for early 2028.

Around 80 percent of the space – around 15,500 square metres – has already been leased on a long-term basis. Tenants include the Bayer Co.Lab, an incubator for biopharma start-ups, and the Berlin Center for Gene and Cell Therapies, a joint initiative of Bayer AG, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH). An important component of the Berlin Center is a GMP-certified production facility for gene and cell therapies on the ground floor. On the eighth and ninth floors, around 4,300 square metres are still available for further tenants from the fields of biotechnology, pharmaceutical research and medical technology.

Riverside Labs is located in the Health Innovation Quarter Berlin-Mitte, which extends as a contiguous area from the Charité Mitte campus to the Bayer site between Müllerstraße and Nordhafen to the Virchow-Klinikum campus. In March 2026, the state of Berlin officially named the Health Innovation Quarter Berlin-Mitte the twelfth future location in the capital, thus joining the network of Berlin's most innovative science and technology locations. With more than 25,000 employees and leading players from science, research and industry, the quarter forms a highly innovative ecosystem with international appeal. The building bundles research, development and production under one roof and strengthens Berlin as a leading European life science location.

The architectural design was developed by the internationally active architectural firm HENN, which specialises in demanding research, innovation and business locations.

"Our goal was to develop a highly flexible life science property that intelligently combines research, production and collaboration in a spatially intelligent way and at the same time creates an identity-creating place in the Berlin science cluster," says Marcus Fißan from HENN.

"The high pre-letting rate confirms that the market urgently needs first-class, specialised space in established life science clusters. We are proud to set new standards for life science real estate in continental Europe with this project," explains Vincent Wege, Managing Director of iQ spaces.

Guests from science, business and politics came together for the laying of the foundation stone on the construction site at Berlin's Nordhafen, including Berlin's Governing Mayor Kai Wegner, Franziska Giffey, Mayor of Berlin and Senator for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises, Dr. Ina Czyborra, Senator for Science, Health and Care, as well as representatives of the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space. The conclusion was the symbolic laying of the foundation stone with a time capsule.

The Berlin-based SMV Group is responsible for project management. Greenberg Traurig and DLA Piper are providing legal advice. Hamburger Sparkasse is the financing partner of the project.