Merck Gets OK for New Lab Building in Upper Gwynedd

Dan Sokil | The Reporter•

A new year has brought new plans for a new lab building within the Merck complex in Upper Gwynedd.

Township officials voted ahead those plans, the latest in a series of new buildings added by the manufacturer in the post-pandemic area.

"We have set up the project in the area which is the former home of our original research building, that was built in 1955 and has been up in service until it was knocked down in 2021. So the new building will actually replace the existing facility,” said Merck spokesman Greg Landis.

In recent years, the global drugmaker has secured approvals for several new buildings and expansions in their West Point complex off of Sumneytown Pike, including expansion of their "Building 45” for labs and office space in October 2020, a new "Building 50” of roughly 101,000 square feet of manufacturing space in February 2021, a new "Building 32” for freezer space approved in May 2021, expansion of the proposed "Building 50” in August 2021, and a new "Building 63A” production facility approved in November 2021.

During the township’s Jan. 8 commissioners meeting, Landis gave the board and public a look at their next project: a new "Building 41” located toward the center of the company’s 320-acre complex, which he compared to the size of the Disney Epcot complex in Florida that’s roughly 300 acres. The new Building 41 would be roughly 110,600 square feet, on a footprint of 40,300 square feet, and it will be set back 850 feet from Sumneytown Pike and 800 feet from West Point Pike.

"It sits well-surrounded by larger buildings around it. There’s a parking garage to the east, which blocks any view of the building as it’s constructed. You literally will not see it” from outside the complex, Landis said.

Due to the site topography, the building would be built into an embankment, and the partial first floor would contain loading docks, with the second floor containing three labs, and the third floor having six labs, storage and offices. The tallest buildings in the complex reach 65 feet tall, and the new building would be 52 feet tall at its highest point, Landis told the board, with a metal and class cladding on the exterior.

"The use of the building will be for late stage bioanalytical testing. And what that means is: when drugs get to a point of getting into phase three trials, which is one of the last steps, those results have to come back and be analyzed, categorized, and documented, and that’s what this building will be used for,” Landis said.

"It’ll be a lot of robotics, a lot of individual samples that are stored and evaluated, and that’s what we hope the building will be able to function as,” he said.

Within the building, roughly 180 staff would work, which the spokesman said will be a mix of transfers from elsewhere and new employees and "mostly on day shift.” The parking for those employees will be on site, all utilities will connect to those already on the complex, and landscaping has been vetted by the township’s Environmental Advisory Commission, which signed off on the proposed 11 small trees and 75 shrubs to buffer the building. The plans have been vetted by the township and county planning commissions, and the township’s engineer, sewer engineer, fire marshal and zoning officer, and the company has agreed to comply with or address all of the comments from those reviews.

A total of nine waivers are being requested along with the approval, Landis told the board, mostly to do with specific plan recording and approvals for that building, which instead would be covered in the township’s master site agreement with Merck; all have been vetted and approved by the township engineer, he said, and the township planning commission granted their own approval in December, with construction possible as soon as this summer depending on permit approvals.

Township solicitor Lauren Gallagher added that an additional waiver had been requested regarding the slope of pipes to be installed in the project, and said that waiver was based on the site conditions and would be included in approvals from the township if the board so agreed. Commissioners President Katherine Carter then asked for comments or questions from the board and the public, and after hearing none, the commissioners unanimously approved the plans.

In a pair of separate votes, commissioners Vice President Rebecca Moodie also presented two more Merck requests, one to allow Sunday work hours on a utility project in January and February, and a second request for Sunday work hours on demolition of Merck’s Building 35 within the complex. Details on those requests were included in the board’s meeting materials packet for Jan. 8, and both were approved unanimously with no discussion.

Upper Gwynedd’s commissioners next meet at 7 p.m. on Feb. 5 at the township administration building, 1 Parkside Place; for more information visit www.UpperGwynedd.org.

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