$2 Million Grant to Blackbird Labs Paves Way for 35,000‑Square‑Foot BioHub, Promising New Life‑Science Jobs for South Baltimore”

Blackbird Laboratories has secured a $2 million boost from Maryland’s new Build Our Future Grant Pilot Program—capital that will anchor a 35,000‑square‑foot Baltimore BioHub inside the City Garage Science & Technology Center and accelerate the city’s growing life‑sciences corridor.

Funding Win Under Moore’s Innovation Push

The award is part of the state’s first round of Build Our Future grants, which distributed $6.95 million across ten projects aimed at “innovation‑infrastructure” in high‑growth sectors such as biotech and AI. The program—created by the 2023 Governor’s Innovation Economy Infrastructure Act—offers up to $2 million per project and requires significant matching funds, signaling Maryland’s intent to crowd‑in private capital. Blackbird’s share will offset a planned $12 million build‑out of wet‑lab and office space tailored for drug‑discovery startups, slated to open in early 2026.

A New Chapter for City Garage

City Garage began life as a 135,000‑square‑foot bus depot but was reimagined in 2015 as an R&D hub in the Port Covington—now Baltimore Peninsula—district. Today it houses med‑tech manufacturers, advanced prototyping shops and, soon, the Baltimore BioHub, which will occupy roughly a quarter of the complex and provide shared equipment, vivarium space and room for ten early‑stage companies. Its location—minutes from I‑95 and a short hop to Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland labs—was a deciding factor, Blackbird says, fostering “a tech hub of like‑minded neighbors … all working for the same goals.”

Inside Blackbird Laboratories

Founded in 2023, Blackbird takes its name from the inquisitive birds of myth and, fittingly, from Baltimore’s NFL franchise. The nonprofit launched with a $100 million gift from The Stephen and Renee Bisciotti Foundation—established by Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti to expand opportunity and entrepreneurship in Maryland. Led by CEO Matt Tremblay, PhD, the organization partners with Johns Hopkins, UMB and the Lieber Institute to shepherd university discoveries into venture‑backed companies. Its investment arm, Blackbird BioVentures, provides seed capital and strategic guidance to help those spinouts stay and scale in Baltimore.

City Garage

Why This Matters

For Maryland, the grant aligns with Governor Wes Moore’s pledge to “win the decade” by backing home‑grown innovation clusters. For Baltimore, it signals continued momentum in transforming under‑used industrial real estate into cutting‑edge lab capacity—often the scarcest resource for young biotech firms. And for Blackbird, the BioHub offers a brick‑and‑mortar platform to translate its $100 million war chest into new medicines, high‑skill jobs and a richer talent pipeline. “The state’s belief in what we’re doing is a helpful asset to the biotech community,” finance and operations director Emily Wilkinson told Technical.ly, underscoring the partnership’s regional ripple effects.

With construction funding in hand, Blackbird Laboratories is poised to turn Baltimore’s former bus garage into the city’s next launchpad for life‑sciences breakthroughs—proof that targeted public dollars can unlock far larger private ambitions.

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