Drexel University is considering moving its medical labs from the former Hahnemann University Hospital campus in Philadelphia to GlaxoSmithKline’s former pharmaceutical plant in Upper Merion, writes Jacob Adelman for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The university would lease around 300,000 square feet at the Montgomery County site to consolidate its medical researchers that are currently spread between Drexel’s two Philadelphia locations, said Alan Greenberger, Drexel’s vice president of real estate and facilities.

In addition to Drexel, the University of Pennsylvania is also working on a possible deal to lease space on the same Upper Merion site.

The suburban facility is benefiting from a shortage of available lab space in Philadelphia. This is prompting the city’s universities and other medical institutions to expand their search area.

Lab users “are working hard to find the right solution that aligns timing with the specialized nature of their needs,” said Joseph Fetterman, who leads the life-sciences practice at Colliers International. “There aren’t that many places to go.”

Current tenants at the Upper Merion facility are GSK, which sold the property but remained on the site using a lease, and Shanghai-area-based biotechnology company Wuxi Biologics.

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