Rendering of a proposed vaccine storage building proposed by Merck for their Upper Gwynedd campus and presented to the township commissioners on Monday, June 9, 2025. (Image courtesy of Merck)
The new project voted ahead by township officials Monday night is planned for roughly a block east, in the Merck campus on the north side of Sumneytown
The region’s largest employer, Merck, is proposing a new vaccine storage building in Upper Gwynedd, according to plans presented to the township this week.
“That is where we’re going to store our vaccine samples, of the vaccines that are made onsite,” said Merck spokesman Greg Landis.
“The project is based on taking down a 16,500-square-foot building, and replacing it with a larger footprint, which will net us about 46,500 square feet,” he said.
Over the past several years, Merck has secured approvals for upgrades and expansions to several buildings on their West Point campus located on the south side of Sumneytown Pike across from Allentown Road, while securing approval earlier this year to swap wetlands on that site for preservation of wetlands elsewhere in the region.
The new project voted ahead by township officials Monday night is planned for roughly a block east, in the Merck campus on the north side of Sumneytown across from the township’s Parkside Place complex.
“Most of our expansion has been at the West Point campus; this is at the Upper Gwynedd campus: a 91 acre property, it was purchased in pieces, and we merged seven properties together,” Landis said.
“It’s a total industrial area: you come back from Dickerson (Road) to Industrial Drive, and then down Louise Lane, and that’s where the location will be,” he added.
The building will house vaccine samples stored in several different temperature freezers, with two small labs that will allow samples to be transferred from containers into vials, and the first floor will be largely storage and testing labs with office and HVAC space on the second floor
“Back in the day you’d put something in a vial and write on a label, but these are etched glass, so we’ll never have to worry about ‘What does that label say?'” he said.
As he spoke, Landis showed the township commissioners a series of site plans indicating where the building will go, then a rendering from the ground floor showing the glass-clad building and the bike racks, parking spaces and landscaping surrounding it. The building will be operated by 18 staff, largely transfers but with a few new employees, and will have an emergency generator and be designed to meet the gold level of LEED energy efficiency standards, he said.
“We’re trying to do the best we can for sustainability and energy efficiency of the building,” he said.
A total of eight waivers have been identified by Merck in talks with township staff and their consultants, largely to do with landscaping around the building, and Landis said the latest version of the plans now call for fully native plantings, with 99 new plants to be installed around the building when done.
Aside from size, the main difference from the current building is that the entrance is on the opposite side of the lot, he added, and the site plan shows a mix of storage areas, freezers, and labs on the first floor with office above. Besides the landscaping details, other waiver requests include to allow a shorter distance between parking and the building than currently allowed by township codes, narrower driveways than currently allowed, not to provide sidewalk along the road leading to the building, and smaller stormwater piping than required, all of which have been vetted and approved by the township’s consultants.
Upper Gwynedd’s commissioners next meet at 7 p.m. on July 14 at the township administration building, 1 Parkside Place. For more information visit www.UpperGwynedd.org.
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