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MUSC Discovery District
Innovation In Action

As Charleston’s “Discovery District,” WestEdge was built to serve as a catalyst for the knowledge-based economy, giving Charleston a competitive edge in recruiting the brightest thought leaders, students, and residents. Designed to be a hub for groundbreaking research, collaboration, and innovation in life science, WestEdge provides fertile ground and abundant opportunities for business, talent recruitment, investment, and jobs.

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Launching Pad for Success


Fueling the growth of WestEdge are creative collaborations between world-class MUSC researchers and the private sector, in hopes of unearthing new medical breakthroughs and catalyzing economic advances across the region. WestEdge has created the ideal environment for collaboration and innovation to thrive, attracting and retaining the best healthcare and research talent – and enriching every part of the community.

Perhaps more than ever before, life science partners inside ventures like WestEdge brim with potential to contribute. Organizations like WestEdge's anchor tenant MUSC, alongside partners SCRA and Vikor, are not only community resources in the fight against the coronavirus, but are at the forefront of creating new, cutting-edge diagnostics and life science applications expected to have enormous commercialization potential, and the likelihood of creating a safer, more healthy society.

Surrounded by the Medical University of South Carolina, Roper St. Francis Healthcare, the College of Charleston, and The Citadel, WestEdge is flush with local talent and intelligence, creativity, and drive – with an energy entirely its own.

With state-of-the-art lab space, incubator and accelerator space, general office space, 587 new living spaces, Publix Super Market, restaurants and retail shops, as well as additional hotel options for clients, patients, and partners alike, WestEdge invites individuals to live, work, and dine in a place where accessibility, connection, and innovation are possible.

The WestEdge Advantage

To lease space in 22 WestEdge is to have access to a 156,000+ square foot, LEED-certified, Class-A office building with river views and in-building retail and restaurant amenities. With its downtown location and wealth of nearby parks and innovation centers, tenants of 22 WestEdge are inspired by their surrounding community.

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The Charleston Medical District


The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) is a national leader in medical education, biomedical science and medical research, attracting the world’s best teaching physicians, researchers and scientists.

To expand its role in medical research and healthcare discoveries, MUSC has aligned their research programs with private industry innovation, grants, technology development, clinical trials, and commercialization.

SCRA has had longtime involvement in the evolution of WestEdge, and with bench research lab space becoming increasingly difficult to access in Charleston, SCRA committed 16,000 of its 20,000 square feet of leased space within WestEdge for wet lab and support. This space became more than ideal for Vikor Scientific, a company that was quickly outgrowing SCRA’s incubator space on Meeting Street in downtown Charleston. SCRA encouraged Vikor to move to their all-new space at 22 WestEdge, allowing Vikor to scale and grow their operation, and right on time to make an impact on local COVID-19 testing.

WestEdge is proud to be the homebase for such important and great innovation in medicine.

MUSC Partners:

A Natural Landscape


WestEdge provides the vital connection and natural landscape for its partners’ future growth. MUSC has doubled its acreage and added accessible research and office space within walking distance of their main campus – which has created opportunities for new partnerships over time.

In such a rich, collaborative environment, businesses, entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, students, and residents alike are inspired to connect more, engage more, and create more.

Charleston’s Growing
Knowledge Economy


Charleston is home to more than 200 tech companies. From 2000 to 2012 Charleston's millennial population grew 58 percent – faster than Nashville, Denver, and Houston.

Venture capitalists have taken notice. In fact, the Brookings Institution ranked Charleston #12 in the nation for venture capital "first fundings" by population and deal concentration in 2015.

WestEdge has proved to entice companies to move their business to Charleston, and within WestEdge, while nurturing new start-ups, creating new jobs, and beginning to improve rankings for academic institutions and the city of Charleston.

  • #2

    #2 Fastest-Growing Mid-Size Metro for Computer Software engineers
    - Avalanche Consulting 2011


  • #7

    #7 City for “Where the Jobs will be in 2015”
    - Forbes


  • #12

    #12 in the Nation for Venture Capital "First Fundings" by Population & Deal Concentration
    - Brookings Institution 2015


  • #4

    #4 Highest Concentration of Biotech Research (Among Mid-Sized U.S. Metros)
    - Avalanche Consulting 2015


The Success of Discovery Districts



Innovation / Discovery Districts are emerging in dozens of cities and metropolitan areas in the US and abroad – Barcelona, Berlin, London, Atlanta, Baltimore, and Boston to name just a few.

WestEdge is proud to report that the vision for Charleston’s Discovery District and an energetic life science hub has played out in real time, just two years after breaking ground on 22 WestEdge, its central hub of activity.

Gateway Development, Inc. leads WestEdge's development and has proven the impact of successful Discovery District-style communities in and around university campuses, including the acclaimed Tech Square in Atlanta, Georgia.