New plans underway for shared lab space at Charlotte’s $1.5 billion Pearl District
Work is underway at The Pearl District to build a shared lab space for growing companies involved with science, technology and robotics.
Connect Labs Charlotte by Wexford Science & Technology is scheduled to open in October at 905 Pearl Park Way. Construction is underway. It will have 30,000 square feet with a wet lab to handle liquid substances and a dry lab with computers for experiments, research and data.
Wexford is partnering with Atrium Health to build The Pearl, a $1.5 billion innovative district that broke ground in 2023. Along with Connect Labs, The Pearl will be home to the new Wake Forest University School of Medicine Charlotte, retail, offices, apartments, a parking structure and an outdoor plaza.
Craig Scharton, founding site director for Charlotte, will oversee the daily operations of the lab. He’s working to have everything ready by the fall. Scharton joined Wexford in January after working 35 years with nonprofit, public and private organizations.
“I was able to work in the San Francisco Bay Area during the whole dot-com boom,” Scharton said. “So (Charlotte) kind of has that same vibe now.”
The Pearl is expected to bring innovation to Charlotte through medical and surgical technology along with associated fields, he said.
Travis Sheridan, a Wexford senior vice president and chief community officer, added that cities like Boston, San Diego and North Carolina’s Research Triangle area became hubs for biosciences. But not Charlotte.
“Charlotte has never put that stake in the ground,” Sheridan said.
And The Pearl District and associated projects like Connect Labs may fill that void.
“In this case, we’re thinking about the powerhouse of (Atrium Health and parent company Advocate Health) as a health system and provider — combined with the school of medicine,” Sheridan said. “All of that being built into a single complex on a campus — it’s going to differentiate Charlotte from other places throughout the United States and even globally.”
Wexford has been in North Carolina for a number of years with projects like Innovation Quarter, a development in downtown Winston-Salem with amenities such as retail, co-working spaces and apartments.
But the Connect Labs project will be a first for Charlotte and its economy, Sheridan said. He said the city is unique because of its success in the financial services market. Wexford will add more to the economy with a focus on biosciences and technology.
The lab facility will also have private offices, open spaces with desks, a fully stocked kitchen and support services from an on-site team. It will be the fourth lab by Wexford and the first in the Southeast. The other labs are located in Phoenix and Baltimore. A third location in Sacramento is scheduled to open in March.
Wexford is recruiting tenants for the first group of users. Connect Labs is planning to house university and regional startups, capital providers, and corporate innovation groups, according to the company. It will be a co-working space for the scientists with a million dollars worth of shared equipment, Sheridan said.
“It’s really meant to support the entrepreneurs that need to move their idea from a bar napkin or their garage and home lab to something commercialized,” Sheridan said.
More on The Pearl
The Pearl is being built in the Brooklyn neighborhood. It was home to Charlotte’s largest Black community with businesses, schools and churches before city leaders in the late 1960s decimated it in the name of urban renewal. Pearl Street Park is a remaining landmark.
The city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County are partnering with Atrium and Wexford on The Pearl.
Wake Forest University School of Medicine Charlotte will anchor the Howard R. Levine Center for Education in the center of The Pearl. Levine’s foundation provided a $25 million gift to name the 14-story building.
It will also house the university’s School of Business, the new Wake Forest School of Professional Studies and the Carolina College of Health Science, which will provide nursing and other professional training.
The district will also be home to the North American headquarters for IRCAD, a France-based surgical training center, the company announced in 2022. IRCAD was founded in 1994 and opened at the University Hospital of Strasbourg, France. It expanded to six training centers in five countries, but none in North America. Charlotte will be the first.
Tenants at The Pearl are projected to create more than 5,500 jobs at the site and around 11,500 jobs in the Charlotte region.
“The energy around The Pearl and Charlotte in general is so high right now,” Scharton said. “It’s just amazing.”
This story was originally published February 10, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "New plans underway for shared lab space at Charlotte’s $1.5 billion Pearl District."
