Cancer Research Center To Open In West Harlem Lab Space

HARLEM, NY — The developers of a new 11,000-square-foot lab facility in West Harlem have found a tenant: Volastra Therapeutics, a biotech company researching cancer treatments, the developers announced this week.

Volastra signed a lease to move into the lab inside the Mink Building, a historic red-brick structure on Amsterdam Avenue between 126th and 128th streets that was once home to beer manufacturers.

For the past several years, Janus Property Company has been transforming the formerly industrial neighborhood into a research-focused development dubbed the Manhattanville Factory District, aiming to make it "one of the world's go-to destinations for STEM (science, technology, math and engineering)," Janus said in a news release.

Volastra joins other research tenants in the neighborhood, including Harlem Biospace, located just down the block on 127th Street, which provides rental space to biotechnology companies. The developers hope to form a hub of scientific tenants in the area, emphasizing its proximity to Columbia University's West Harlem campus expansion as well as CUNY's City College campus in Hamilton Heights.

The city has encouraged that transformation — in 2018, it granted $1 million to Quentis Therapeutics, another cancer research company, to help it expand into West Harlem.

"Volastra is involved in potentially game-changing cancer research and we are honored to help them achieve their goals," Scott Metzner, founder and principal of Janus, said in a statement. "Thankfully, even in New York’s active biosciences ecosystem, the District is generating a great deal of interest, and we look forward to announcing further important companies and not-for-profits that will be joining us soon."