Aerial view over baltimore downtown city skyline i 2021 08 26 22 38 16 utcA throng of entrepreneurs, academics, developers and prominent life sciences players milled about two construction vehicles parked on a vacant, grass-covered lot at West Fayette Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in West Baltimore Friday afternoon.

The crowd came to celebrate the start of construction on 4MLK, a project that has been in the works for nearly a decade and will eventually provide the local life sciences sector with badly needed wet lab space.