Hazelwood’s buildup of modern manufacturing is poised to continue with city approval of the University of Pittsburgh’s plan for a biomanufacturing facility. The City Planning Commission approved a proposal for a 68-foot-tall building totaling 185,000 square feet that will house a cell- and gene-therapy facility. The approval of the BioForge building continues the high tech redevelopment of the 178-acre area known as Hazelwood Green, which includes the neighboring Mill 19, housing Carnegie Mellon University’s Manufacturing Futures Institute. And nearby is a site for which CMU recently received commission approval to build a robotics laboratory. Architecture firm HOK expects construction of the BioForge facility to begin later this year and to be completed by mid-2025. Pitt has partnered with a Massachusetts-based company, ElevateBio, and construction of BioForge is expected to cost $250 million, according to HOK

On July 21, 2023, ElevateBio, a technology-driven company built to power the development of transformative cell and gene therapies, completed the lease of its new BaseCamp manufacturing facility in Pittsburgh, per their long-term strategic partnership with the University of Pittsburgh to accelerate the development of highly innovative cell and gene therapies.

Five years ago, Bhakti Bhargava was one of five employees to join ElevateBio.