Jackson Lab’s $33M expansion to enhance research capacity

Rendering / Courtesy The Jackson Laboratory The Jackson Laboratory’s B80 Research Building will enhance capacity to conduct research across all areas of focus.

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By Laurie Schreiber

Jackson Laboratory — a nonprofit biomedical research institution headquartered in Bar Harbor — has a construction project underway to build a 21,000-square-foot, two-story expansion at its Bar Harbor campus.

The project was originally presented to the Bar Harbor Planning Board as an expansion of the lab’s Rare Disease Translational Center, established in 2022 to research rare diseases and the development of new therapies to treat them.

Now called the B80 (Building 80) Research Building, it will enhance capacity to conduct JAX research across all areas of focus, including its Rare Disease Translational Center, to develop potential new therapies for people living with rare and many other diseases.

Construction broke ground in January and is on track to be completed in late summer 2026.

Total estimated cost is $32.75 million for design, permitting, construction, equipment and other development costs. Construction alone is estimated at $24.5 million.

Flad Architects in Boston and Portland-based architecture firm Harriman provided the design. The general contractor is Consigli Construction Co.

The expansion will connect to the “Core Research Complex,” a large, interconnected building that houses the lab’s research facilities.

The concept is centered around minimizing disruption to existing conditions and leveraging existing on-campus utility services, driveways and parking lots.

In February, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she heard from JAX, the University of Maine, Maine Medical Center Research Institute, the University of New England, and MDI Biological Laboratory and others regarding the NIH 15% cap on indirect cost reimbursement rates for federal research grants.

In a recent statement, JAX said the planned cap, if implemented, “threatens the entire biomedical research community and has the potential to disrupt discoveries into the lifesaving treatments all Americans depend on.”

“We are working urgently with our partners in government, academia and the research community to address these challenges and to ensure that everyone understands the significant setbacks that would result if such a cap were imposed,” JAX said.

JAX has 1,694 workers at its Bar Harbor campus. That includes 1,463 employees and over 200 non-employees including students, visiting scientists, contractors and others.