Skanska has signed a contract with clinical research company Medpace to construct a new nine-story, 562,000-square-foot office development for $164 million, as part of a two-building $327 million expansion of its corporate campus in Cincinnati’s Madisonville neighborhood.
The project will feature a six-story office building atop a three-floor parking garage and conference center. It will be developed at 5355 Medpace Way, the site of a 57,340-square-foot building constructed in 2011 that is currently home to the company’s Clinical Pharmacology Unit. The CPU building will be demolished to make way for the new tower. The building will have a front courtyard, connecting stairs on all six floors, open office spaces, collaboration spaces, private offices, a fitness center and conference rooms, according to additional details released by Skanska.
Preparatory work began in February and the project is slated for completion in March 2027.
Skanska is also working on a new 75,000-square-foot CPU building that will include a loading dock, reception areas, conference rooms and sleeping rooms for inpatient study subjects.
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Stockholm-based Skanska is overseeing the campus expansion on behalf of the project’s developer, RBM Development, which is owned by the Medpace CEO August Troendle. The Medpace expansion will be the largest office construction project in the city.
Project incentives, grants
The project received several incentives totaling more than $120 million in May from both the city of Cincinnati and the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority after reaching an agreement to form a tax-increment financing district worth $3.4 million annually. It is believed to be the largest economic incentive deal in Cincinnati history and calls for Medpace to add approximately 1,500 new jobs at the site and keep the existing 3,000 jobs. The deal included about $33 million through a 55 percent payroll tax credit for 14 years and at least $90 million from the TIF over 30 years, according to local12.com.
The city will also contribute $1.5 million for public improvements at the site and $200,000 for infrastructure upgrades to the intersections of Medpace Way and Hetzell Street, the campus’ surrounding streets, Commercial Property Executive previously reported.
Other funding includes $55 million worth of lower-interest bonds issued by the port authority and a $23 million development grant from JobsOhio, the state’s private development arm. The Ohio Department of Transportation is providing $325,000
Creating a mixed-use campus
Founded in 1992, Medpace is a global clinical research organization for development of drugs and medical devices. Medpace began making plans to move to the former NuTone manufacturing site in 2008. Following several years of construction, Medpace moved from Norwood, Ohio, to the new space in Madisonville in 2012. Over time, the campus grew to include five buildings with about 600,000 square feet of total space.
Skanska has worked on several other projects at the Medpace campus in recent years as it has been transformed into a mixed-use district. In 2018, Skanska completed the adaptive reuse redevelopment of a former NuTone warehouse and parking garage into a 239-key, 426,000-square-foot full-service boutique hotel and conference center, known as The Summit.
Two years later, Skanska completed Madison Square, which includes street-level retail, a plaza level public commons and seven-story, 263,000-square-foot Class A office building.