Even as construction crews continue work on a 10-story tower that will be home to state-of-the-art classrooms and research facilities, the University of Delaware is about to further expand its footprint at the STAR Campus.

The university will break ground Monday on a planned six-story, 200,000-square-foot building just west of the STAR Tower on Discovery Boulevard. The structure, called the University of Delaware Biopharmaceutical Innovation Building, will cost $156 million and is expected to open in January of 2020.

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But unlike other STAR buildings, UD will be the owner, financing the project itself without state or government grants.

University President Dennis Assanis said the money will come both from bonds and private philanthropy.

The project differs from previous STAR Campus developments in which UD leases the space and a private company constructs the building.

The Biopharmaceutical Innovation Building keeps Newark and the university at the forefront of efforts to mass produce cutting-edge biopharmaceuticals. Almost two of the six stories will become the national headquarters of the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals, a project announced last year that calls Newark home and unites more than 150 universities, private companies, and nonprofits from across the country.

Biopharmaceuticals are prescription drugs made with living cells and include things like vaccines and cancer drugs. The field has a negative unemployment rate, meaning there are more jobs available than there are qualified workers to fill them.

The institute's focus is on bringing safe drugs to market faster and developing workforce training.

The Institute, created through $250 million in member investments, including $70 million from the feds, does not develop new drugs. It brings together a community of stakeholders to innovate manufacturing and to develop the next generation of workers.

Director Kelvin Lee said it will "catalyze" the organization's efforts.

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The remaining four-plus stories at the new building will be dedicated to complementary UD-led life science research and technology programs.

The new facility will allow teams of scientists from organizations around the country to work collaboratively in a shared laboratory to help bring medicines to market more quickly.

Institute scientists will be located in the same facility as various other UD researchers working on complementary research.

“It’s critically important to have these physical synergies," said Charles Riordan, vice president for Research, Scholarship and Innovation at the university. "These spaces provide powerful opportunities for each of those groups."

"You can imagine the effect of bringing them together to work in common spaces on a big project such as innovating a way to develop and manufacture the biopharmaceuticals of the future," Assanis said. "That’s the grand vision, bringing these people together in a common space and on a common platform to advance both the science and the manufacturing of those biopharmaceuticals and make them available to people.”

The Biopharmaceutical Innovation Building will complement efforts at the STAR Campus, already home to many health sciences programs and clinics as well as healthcare and life science-research companies.

This new facility is allowing the university to expand its educational programs, including master's and doctorate programs in pharmaceutical studies, pending approval by the faculty senate.

"We have an opportunity to develop programs that will be high-impact and prepare students for careers in pharmaceutical sciences, research and manufacturing careers," Riordan said.

Assanis said this project, which will be constructed by Whiting-Turner, will "catapult" the development of the STAR Campus and help form a "neighborhood." Assanis said the goal was to be recognized as number one in biopharmaceutical science and innovation.

"Fifteen-hundred new jobs over the next 5 to 10 years is something that strikes me as really possible," he said.

"This project will attract many other startups and companies in the state to work with us in the biopharmaceutical industry and broader health sciences.

"We look forward to many more companies and buildings in the next few years.”

Contact reporter Jeff Neiburg at (302) 983-6772, jneiburg@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @Jeff_Neiburg.