LPA’s master plan for DeSoto’s Life Sciences Innovation Core maps out a campus for life science innovators to live, work and scale their startups.
Excerpted from Nicole Ward’s article for Dallas Innovates.
Dallas-Fort Worth is emerging as a top life science market, as documented in a 2023 CBRE report. You can see why the DeSoto Development Corp. is including an 80-acre Life Sciences Innovation Core among its major projects.
“When you look at the other health initiatives happening in Dallas—Pegasus Park, Texas Instruments Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, UT Southwestern at Redbird Mall, and Cypress Waters, to name a few—building a live/work hub dedicated to life science in Southern Dallas is a no-brainer,” says Matt Carlson, DDC’s chief executive. …
“We want to create a campus-like atmosphere,” he says.
The development will be a place where people in the life sciences space can live and work as they grow and scale their startups.
“They may have found a product has potential to be commercialized and they need more space and more staff,” Carlson says. “Right now, regionally there’s a gap for those organizations that want to get to the next level.” …
In August, the DDC and the Wildwood Development firm cut the ribbon on the new DeSoto Professional Park, where the Life Sciences Innovation Core will be located.
LPA Design Studios, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary (and its seventh in Dallas) in 2025, says this kind of project is about creating something that will benefit future generations.
“Early on, we had a chance to present the plans to DeSoto officials and key members of the community,” says D. Alex John Jr., LPA’s principal and design director. “And they were moved to tears, thinking about how this could have a lasting impact on the next generation.”
“Our motto is ‘changing lives by design,’ and we truly believe that design can improve communities and people’s lives on every project for every budget at every scale,” says Isabel Mandujano, LPA’s director of laboratory planning.
She says LPA works collaboratively with clients to set project goals in four key areas: sustainability, wellness, community experience, and performance.
Read more at Dallas Innovates.
