On Monday, August 31, Umoja Biopharma and CRB officially kicked off the construction of a 146,000 square foot development and clinical manufacturing facility. CRB, an international provider of sustainable engineering, architecture, construction and consulting solutions to the life sciences industry will lead the design and construction of the space for Umoja Biopharma, an oncology company leveraging its proprietary integrated technologies to reprogram immune cells in vivo to create next-generation immunotherapies for the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. CRB is applying its ONEsolution approach to deliver the innovative project and meet aggressive sustainability goals on schedule and on budget.
 
Andy Scharenberg, M.D., Umoja Biopharma co-founder and CEO, and members of the CRB and Umoja project team opened the event with a project tour and overview. Attendees included government and economic development officials, business partners and members of the CRB project team and Umoja Biopharma leadership.
 
“It has been a privilege to work with Umoja to deliver a project in support of transformative science and therapies to treat cancerous tumors. Working closely with Umoja demonstrates their commitment to sustainability, diversity, equity, inclusion, creativity and fast project delivery,” said Colton Konkak, Colorado market team leader at CRB. “These commitments and goals unified our team members and allowed us to support rapidly changing technology. We are humbled that Umoja has entrusted us to deliver this project.”
 
CRB will transform the existing building into 146,000 square feet of highly flexible and scalable manufacturing, laboratory, office, and warehouse space. The project design will focus on features to integrate LEED criteria along with zero carbon emissions to meet the company’s sustainability goals.
 
CRB’s ONEsolution is a complete approach that takes a project from initial planning through operational readiness. It advances the principles of integrated project delivery, uses proven lean construction tools, and capitalizes on the collaborative expertise of a single design and construction team. The result is improved design, increased productivity, reduced waste and inefficiencies, and lower costs.
 
The current plan is for Phase 1 to be complete by May 2022 and substantial completion by Fall 2022.