Genentech Kicks Off $700M Research Triangle Project

Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, has broken ground on a $700 million, 700,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, N.C. This is the biotech company’s first such development on the East Coast and it expects to bring it online by 2029.

The property will support Genentech’s metabolic medicine production, including obesity treatments.

The construction site is at 4001 Friendship Road, across the street from Amgen’s campus, where the firm pledged to invest $1 billion last year to add a second manufacturing plant. Downtown Raleigh, N.C., is about 20 miles northeast, while U.S. Route 1 runs less than 1 mile away.

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Genentech’s investment is part of its broader strategy to commit $50 billion in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics across the U.S. over the next five years. The biotech company is set to develop three new manufacturing facilities and one R&D center, in addition to upgrading existing properties. Its current national footprint encompasses some 5 million square feet across 28 sites.

Genentech expects to create more than 400 manufacturing jobs once the Holly Springs facility is operational, while approximately 1,500 construction jobs will be added during its development stage.

Research Triangle biomanufacturing ramps up

Nearly 1.5 million square feet of industrial space debuted across Raleigh-Durham, N.C., during the first half of 2025, according to a Cushman & Wakefield report. The pipeline remains healthy, as the brokerage firm expects an additional 3 million square feet to come online by year’s end.

Genentech and Amgen aren’t the only companies bullish on manufacturing investment across the market. Just last month, Biogen announced its commitment to invest $2 billion in expanding and modernizing its existing campus at the Research Triangle Park.

In 2024, Novo Nordisk earmarked $4.1 billion for the ground-up development of a 1.4 million-square-foot manufacturing project in Clayton, N.C. That same year, FUJIFILM Biotechnologies set out to expand its production capabilities with a $1.2 billion investment, also in Holly Springs.