Local Affairs
Los Angeles County is launching a $12 million revolving loan fund to pay for new multi-tenant buildings where life-sciences and manufacturing companies can grow, with a stated target of about 200 jobs created or retained over the next two years. The county’s Department of Economic Opportunity announced the Graduation and Manufacturing Space Fund on Wednesday, Oct. 21, and said the first phase of applications will open in mid-November.
The fund was announced with Second District Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), which will administer the applications, at the Health Equity Innovation Summit hosted by the Larta Institute. The county published its release on Thursday, Oct. 22.
Who can borrow and for what
The loans are aimed at the buildings, not directly at the companies that would occupy them. Eligible property owners and qualified long-term master lease holders can apply for up to $5 million each. The money can cover design, site development, core and shell construction, shared infrastructure, code-compliance upgrades and tenant-ready improvements.
The county expects applicants to include universities, research institutions and specialized private developers able to deliver and manage large facilities for life-sciences firms. Phase 1 opens in mid-November; Phase 2, in February, will be by invitation only. After the first phase opens, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation and the department plan a virtual information session and an in-person application clinic.
The release does not disclose interest rates, repayment periods or how projects will be scored.
Where the money comes from
The fund draws on a $19 million California Jobs First Regional Investment Initiative grant that Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in August 2025. The grant is administered by the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development and the Labor and Workforce Development Agency. The county is adding $5.75 million for this fund and a second program.
That second program, a Tenant Improvement Fund, is planned for early 2027. It would provide $11 million in awards, with individual loans of up to $800,000, aimed at another 35,000 to 75,000 square feet of space. Both funds were recommended in the department’s Life Sciences Industry Study and Action Plan, and the county named the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation, BioscienceLA and Larta as regional partners.
The jobs math
The county says the space fund aims to create 60,000 to 80,000 square feet of new life-sciences infrastructure and to create or retain approximately 200 jobs in the next two years. The tenant fund is expected to account for another 100 to 200 jobs. Those are program goals, and the “create or retain” wording means some of the positions may already exist; the release does not say how many would be new.
The county framed the funds as steps toward its goal of adding 10,000 inclusive life-sciences jobs by 2030. The release does not include local-hiring requirements, wage standards or other job-quality conditions for borrowers or their tenants.
Mitchell said in the release that growing the industry “must also mean expanding access to the jobs and opportunities it creates.” Kelly LoBianco, the department’s director, said the fund is meant to ensure companies “have the infrastructure and resources to succeed at every stage of their development.”
What it means for workers
The logic is indirect: the loans pay for buildings, the buildings house growing companies and those companies hire. Any jobs depend on projects being approved, built and leased, which pushes most hiring beyond the November application window. For lab technicians, manufacturing workers and others in the region’s life-sciences field, the fund signals where the county is steering public money, not an immediate set of openings.
Interested applicants can sign up for updates through the department’s life-sciences page or contact the Local Initiatives Support Corporation at gmsf@lisc.org.
Sources
- Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity, “LA County and California Jobs First Launch Loan Fund to Support Life Sciences and Manufacturing Space,” October 22, 2026. https://opportunity.lacounty.gov/la-county-and-california-jobs-first-launch-loan-fund-to-support-life-sciences-and-manufacturing-space/
Featured photo: The gloved hands of a scientist attaching a pipet to a pipet aid, in a National Cancer Institute photo dated Jan. 27, 2005. Representative image; not a Los Angeles County facility or fund recipient. Photo: Diane A. Reid (National Cancer Institute), via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). Cropped from the original.
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