New state filings this month revealed the first major steps in Eli Lilly and Company’s planned $6.5 billion pharmaceutical manufacturing campus in northeast Houston, where the drugmaker expects to produce medicines including its experimental GLP-1 pill, orforglipron.
The five projects outlined in filings with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation account for nearly 700,000 square feet of construction and an estimated $378 million in construction. Together, they offer the clearest look yet at what Eli Lilly plans to build first at 12550 Timber Forest Drive in Generation Park.
A spokesperson for the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant told the Houston Business Journal that the overall development remains on track and is expected to be completed by 2030.
What the filings detail
The largest building detailed in the filings is a 341,505-square-foot facility designed to manufacture small-molecule medicines. Estimated to cost $193 million, the building will be larger than five football fields laid side by side.
Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in August and continue through November 2027. Early work would include the building’s main structural frame, stairways and elevator shafts.
A second manufacturing building would span 232,887 square feet and produce oligonucleotides, short strands of genetic material used in certain medicines. That project carries an estimated price tag of $131 million and is expected to be under construction from August through October 2027.
Three smaller buildings would provide additional manufacturing and utility space. Together, they would add nearly 124,000 square feet at an estimated cost of $54 million. All three buildings are tentatively scheduled for completion in June 2027.
The TDLR filings are preliminary, meaning their costs, timelines and designs could ultimately change.
Inside Eli Lilly’s $6.5 billion Houston bet
Eli Lilly announced in September that it would build the sprawling pharmaceutical campus at Generation Park, marking one of the largest manufacturing investments in Houston history.
The facility is expected to produce small-molecule medicines targeting cardiometabolic conditions, cancer, immune disorders and neurological diseases. It is also slated to manufacture orforglipron, Eli Lilly’s experimental oral GLP-1 treatment. Eli Lilly estimates the project will create about 4,000 construction jobs and 615 permanent, high-skilled positions once the campus is operational.
“Texas is proud to welcome Lilly to Houston as they make one of the largest pharmaceutical manufacturing investments in our nation’s history and provide good, high-paying jobs to hardworking Texans,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a prior press release announcing the campus. “This $6.5 billion facility will not only bolster Houston’s economy, it will boost our life sciences sector and help cement Texas as a global leader in health care innovation.” The company estimates that every dollar Eli Lilly spends in the region will generate an additional $4 in local economic activity.
In 2023, McCord unveiled its plans for its 60-acre master-planned biomanufacturing campus, dubbed BioHub Two. According to a March 2025 Cushman & Wakefield life sciences report, the Houston market currently ranks No. 14 nationwide for total employment in life sciences. Additionally, the report projects the Houston area’s life sciences employment rate to grow by 76.5% over the next 10 years.
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