Biomanufacturing Facility

MacDonald-Miller is partnering with a local biotechnology company on the expansion of their biomanufacturing facility as they continue their innovative work to transform cancer medicines. The current 283,000 sf project consists of five connected buildings that expand the company’s biomanufacturing capacity, providing greater control and flexibility to produce their own FDA-approved medications to treat cancer.

Completing this new facility will produce the largest ground-up building project for a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in all of Washington and Oregon. With this comes a massive amount of sheet metal use, including 30 air-handling units on site, weighing approximately 360,000 lbs – equal to about four Boeing 737 airplanes! This is also the largest project MacMiller has done with UA Local 26 plumbers to date.

In addition to completing multiple 50,000 sf of shell/core and tenant improvement buildouts for office and lab spaces, we maintain their buildings with dedicated full-time service and controls technicians. These self-performed design-build projects encompass in-house HVAC, plumbing, controls, test and balance, start-up, and maintenance after construction. To date, our relationship with the company consists of 350 project and service calls, management of over 1,200 of their equipment assets, and providing support to 15 buildings.

An accelerated schedule means that MacMiller’s teams must move quickly. “The project is challenging because it is being engineered, detailed, and installed all at the same time,” says Piping General Foreman Chris Schooling, “I enjoy that this puts these departments in a situation where we’re working closely together.”

Read more from our latest Perspective Newsletter.