Why Companies Are Choosing Georgia’s Largest Biotech Park

While Boston and San Francisco have long dominated the life sciences conversation, the Southeast is writing a new chapter, and Georgia is leading it. Georgia’s life sciences sector, specifically, has quietly been building a compelling alternative with 4,000 industry-related organizations, a concentration of 34,000+ trained industry leaders, excellence in research, and lower business startup costs. 

Rowen is the connective tissue between Georgia’s research institutions, talent, and infrastructure. With 2,000 acres of preserved land for state-of-the-art facilities, labs, and collaboration spaces, Rowen is a compelling destination for biopharma and biotech industry investments that value collaborative learning, knowledge sharing, and transformative thinking. 

In Northeast Georgia, the Rowen Region is pushing this narrative even further, with over 50 research and higher education facilities within an hour’s drive and more than 50,000 college graduates annually. In March, Rowen announced its first tenant, UCB Inc., a Belgium-based biopharmaceutical company that manufactures medicines for people living with severe neurological and autoimmune conditions. The company will invest $2 billion into a new biologics manufacturing facility that spans the size of eight football fields. 

 The Southeast’s Growing Life Sciences Hub

With nearly 12% growth in Georgia’s bioscience hiring between 2019 and 2024, Georgia is no longer an emerging life sciences market, but an established place for talent. Over the past decade, direct industry employment has produced a workforce that is growing 2x faster than overall private sector-related businesses. The state has also been ranked No.1 for business for 12 consecutive years and boasts 30-40% lower costs than Boston, San Francisco, and San Diego. 

Compared to life science hubs on the east and west coasts, Rowen offers something new — a master-planned knowledge community that integrates life sciences with a modern, sustainable lifestyle. Life science companies seeking a “soft landing” with an abundance of cost-effective, high-tier operational space and direct access to a pipeline of elite university talent can find it easily within the Rowen Region.  

Another benefit Rowen offers is its central location along University Parkway, which connects dozens of life sciences-related resources between Atlanta and Athens, GA. Georgia Tech, located just under 30 miles from Rowen, has the No. 1 biomedical engineering program in the nation. The University Parkway corridor also is home to a new medical school in Athens and recent investments from companies like Meissner, UCB, and an abundance of biotech companies in Atlanta, GA. 

Research Institutions and Hospital Partnerships Fueling Biotech Innovation

One of the defining features of any successful biotech hub is accessibility to world-class research institutions. Rowen’s proximity to universities and hospital systems creates robust opportunities for partnerships in biotech, offering a Living Lab Platform, a formal partnership with the University System of Georgia and the Technical College System of Georgia that allows collaboration between institutions, industry partners, and students for research on the site. 

Rowen currently has partnerships with several institutions with deep ties to the life sciences industry, each represented on Rowen’s Board of Directors, including: 

• Emory University, whose Empathetic AI for Health Institute harnesses machine learning to transform disease diagnosis and treatment, spanning cancer immunology, brain health, and personalized diagnostics. Emory’s Center for AI Learning partnered with Rowen and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce on a statewide AI literacy tour, building workforce training in artificial intelligence across Georgia.

• The University of Georgia, ranked No. 5 nationally in agricultural sciences, excelling in plant breeding, food safety, and genomics. UGA also recently opened a new School of Medicine and consistently ranks among the nation’s top universities for research commercialization. 

• The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, a joint program between Georgia Tech and Emory, drives interdisciplinary translational research in biomaterials, regenerative medicine, and biomedical imaging, backed by a Coulter Foundation grant that established the department and an ongoing endowment for translational research. 

• Spelman College, which offers a nationally recognized pipeline for Black women in STEM, with biochemistry and biology programs that have produced 104 doctoral graduates in biomedical sciences over the past decade. 

• Georgia Gwinnett College, whose programs range from nursing to biomedical and laboratory sciences concentrations in cell biology and biotechnology.  

Partnerships at Rowen will go beyond regional universities, with a number of statewide and regional hospital systems increasing opportunities for clinical trials and studies through translational research. These include Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory Health, Northeast Georgia Medical System, Northside, and Piedmont .  

A Deep Pipeline of Life Sciences Talent 

For biopharma and biotechnology companies, finding the right site means evaluating more than acreage and infrastructure. It means evaluating where employees will live, commute from, and build careers. The Rowen Region — an 11-county area home to nearly four million people — is one of the fastest-growing talent ecosystems in the Southeast, with over 50 colleges and universities within an hour’s drive producing 50,000+ graduates annually, with many focused on healthcare, engineering, and computer science. Notably, 46% of Georgia’s projected prime working-age population growth over the next five years is expected within the Rowen Region, meaning the talent pool is not just large today, it is growing in the right direction. 

What sets this workforce story apart is that it is actively supported. Georgia Quick Start provides no-cost customized workforce training to qualifying companies locating or expanding in Georgia, with eligibility tied to factors such as industry, capital investment, and job creation. The state’s Top State for Talent initiative, now codified into law, designates health science as a High Demand Career field and aligns education and economic priorities across agencies. And through Georgia’s CTAE health science career pathways and the Technical College System of Georgia, the pipeline starts in high school, well before a candidate ever walks through the door. 

Infrastructure Built for Complex Biotech Manufacturing

Advanced biologics and pharmaceutical manufacturing demand more than a skilled workforce. They require purpose-built utilities, scalable capacity, and absolute supply chain reliability.  

Rowen is structurally engineered to meet these exact needs, blending a collaborative innovation environment with immediate operational readiness for high-value, precision manufacturing operations. Situated along the expanding GA-316/University Parkway corridor, Rowen has already installed robust water, sewer, and transportation infrastructure across nearly a third of the 2,000-acre site. This localized infrastructure integrates seamlessly into Georgia’s broader global logistics network, which includes Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the Port of Savannah, and a CSX rail line running directly along the campus’s northern boundary.  

UCB’s facility was supported by more than $174 million in incentives from Gwinnett County, including property tax savings, fee waivers, and infrastructure investment, an example of the public backing available to qualifying projects at Rowen. State and local incentives are evaluated case-by-case, and with more than 1,900 acres still available for development, companies have a future-proof opportunity to scale securely. 

UCB’s $2 Billion Campus: Validation of Rowen’s Life Sciences Vision

When global biopharmaceutical leader UCB concluded its competitive U.S. site selection process, the company chose Rowen to anchor its future growth. Renowned for its neurological solutions, advancements in immunotherapy, and other critical therapeutics, UCB’s decision brings a landmark $2 billion direct investment to the campus. This is the largest capital investment in Gwinnett County’s history, featuring a 460,000-square-foot biologics manufacturing facility spanning 79 acres along Rowen Parkway. 

Central to UCB’s decision was Rowen’s collaborative environment and long-term life sciences vision. Having operated successfully in Georgia for more than three decades, UCB’s expansion represents a deepening of a long-standing state partnership rather than an entry into an unfamiliar market. The development is projected to generate $5 billion in total economic impact, creating over 330 permanent positions. 

Why Rowen Belongs on Every Biotech Site Selector’s Short List

The case for Rowen comes down to three things that rarely exist in the same place at the same time: the research depth of a major biotech hub, a deep and actively supported life sciences talent pipeline, and infrastructure that is site-ready today with room to grow for decades. State-of-the-art collaboration spaces and infrastructure built to support complex manufacturing operations give companies the flexibility to commercialize and scale on day one. Behind all of it is a foundation-led nonprofit structure that gives companies the flexibility and long-term stability that a traditional real estate development simply cannot offer. 

UCB’s selection was not a coincidence. It was the result of a rigorous site selection process that found exactly what biotech and biopharma companies need most: a place where the research institutions, the talent ecosystem, and the physical infrastructure are all pointed in the same direction. That convergence does not happen by accident, and it will not stop with UCB. 

For biotech manufacturing and R&D companies evaluating locations in and around Atlanta, the next step starts at Rowen. Get in touch with our team to start the conversation.