4MLK Opens as Gateway to UM BioPark, West Baltimore Life-Sciences Hub

4MLK, developed by Wexford Science + Technology at 801 West Baltimore Street at the intersection of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard and Baltimore Street, opened in fall 2024 as a new gateway to the University of Maryland BioPark and West Baltimore. More than 250 people attended a ribbon-cutting and tour where organizers said roughly half of the building’s eight floors already had occupants, and the first researchers had moved in.

University and developer materials describe 4MLK as an eight-story, roughly 250,000-square-foot lab and office building housing Class A office space, configurable wet laboratory space, Connect Labs for startups, meeting and conference facilities, and build-to-suit floors. Tenants identified at opening include the University of Maryland School of Medicine occupying a full floor, Wexford’s global headquarters on another floor, UMB spinout Irazú Oncology, Emerging Technology Center Baltimore, and EPOCH Epigenetics within the Connect Labs cluster.

Construction began with a launch event Oct. 14, 2022 attended by UMB President Bruce E. Jarrell and Maryland Commerce Secretary Mike Gill. Wexford reported the project logged 210,000 man-hours, with a concrete workforce of 120 men onsite daily for the concrete pour; 13,150 cubic yards of concrete poured; 3,220,000 pounds of rebar installed; and 734,000 pounds of structural steel. Gregg Herlong, vice president of development for Wexford, thanked the construction crew at a topping-off ceremony: "I want to sincerely thank all the men and women who work tirelessly on this project, on site, to help physically shape this building as it comes out of the ground."

The 4MLK opening expands the BioPark’s footprint on a campus that predates the project. UMB established the BioPark in 2003; it now spans 14 acres and nearly 1.2 million square feet across seven buildings and housed nearly three dozen companies employing more than 1,000 people before 4MLK opened. City and developer statements project that once fully leased, 4MLK will bring an additional 1,000 jobs to the downtown campus and create the largest cluster of bioscience companies in the Greater Baltimore region.

Design and site work feature ZGF Architects as the building designer, with STV providing civil engineering and landscape services, coordinating streetscape improvements, ADA-accessible routes, a portion of a planned shared bike route, and utility coordination with Baltimore Gas and Electric. STV’s project page also lists sustainability features including a green roof and an underground stormwater treatment system. One technical discrepancy remains on public record: Wexford and UMB list 4MLK as eight stories and about 250,000 square feet, while STV’s project page describes a 10-story, 330,000-square-foot tower with parking garage.

Phase I of a two-phase development, 4MLK positions the BioPark to deepen collaboration between College Park engineering faculty and UMB clinicians. Jarrell highlighted that crossover: "We will have in this building College Park engineering faculty, along with their students, elbow-to-elbow with UMB physicians and other health science investigators and their students, dreaming up new ideas, creating new discoveries to improve human health." As researchers settle into lab benches and Wexford opens its headquarters, the building aims to cement West Baltimore’s link to the medical district and accelerate biotech commercialization downtown.