By SUSAN PARK

Northwest Biotherapeutics Inc., a company conducting cell-based dendritic prostate cancer research, may be forced to vacate their labs in the Northgate Medical building at Northgate Mall by Dec. 31 - three months before its crucial experimental trials are scheduled to be completed.

The move would set the company's research back a whole year, according to NW Biotherapeutics Project Manager Chip Jacob.

NW Biotherapeutics and its research affiliates currently occupy more than 20,000-square-feet of office space in the Northgate Medical building, which is located beside Northgate Theatre on the north end of the mall. The Northgate Medical building once served as the site of the old Northgate Hospital.

Only 1,300 square feet of NW Biotherapeutics' space is leased directly from the mall's owner, Simon Property Group. The biotech company subleases 5,155 square feet of its space from Northwest Hospital, whose 15-year lease with the mall runs out on Dec. 31. The remaining 13,000 square feet is occupied by Northwest Hospital departments that have been assisting in the company's research.

NW Biotherapeutics is in the first phase of FDA testing for a possible cure for terminally advanced prostate cancer patients, who with current available treatments are given less than one year to live.

Only one other company in the world has received a patent to conduct similar research: Dendreon Corp. in downtown Seattle. Although the research by the two companies is similar, it is not identical. The two say they are taking different approaches to find the most effective treatment.

Dendreon, which recently relocated to Seattle from California, is farther along in testing and is in Phase III. Dave Urdal, Dendreon's chief science officer, says his company is in the final stage of product development and if all goes well, its new treatment will be publicly available in about two years.

NW Biotherapeutics was founded in 1996 by doctors at Northwest Hospital after being spun off from research conducted by Northwest Hospital and the Pacific Northwest Cancer Foundation.

Jacob, who has been project manager with NW Biotherapeutics for a year, says his understanding is that three years ago, when NW Biotherapeutics was founded, they considered relocating to a new facility.

However, Jacob says, Northgate Mall officials talked them out of it by lowering their rent and promising that the company would have first dibs on new office space to be constructed on the mall's south lot, a parking lot known as the South Parcel that is currently occupied by weekend auto and RV tent shows.

Jacob says NW Biotherapeutics, Northwest Hospital, and another tenant, the Pacific Northwest Cancer Foundation, invested over $15 million to build his company's cancer research facilities - confident that they would be able to easily transition into new offices on the South Parcel once they were built.

All of that money would go down the drain if the company is forced to vacate before the mall's South Parcel buildings can be completed. The mall has yet to begin construction of its South Parcel project, due to delays in getting the necessary building permits from the City.

Jacobs said during an all-tenants meeting in April to discuss a problem with the elevator, one of the tenants asked Mall officials what progress they were making on constructing new offices. Jacob says Northgate Mall manager Sam Stalin responded that plans had been revised and the occupants of the old hospital building would eventually have to find somewhere else to go, but that they would be able to stay on a month-to-month basis beginning with the year 2000.

Jacob says he requested a new 5-year lease from Simon, but was declined. "Geographically, this was an excellent location," said Jacob.

Jacob says he then met with Stalin to get permission to stay at least until March. He says Stalin told him that they wouldn't begin demolition for at least six months and gave him a verbal extension. After that agreement, Jacob says NW Biotherapeutics completed construction of a $50,000, 288-square-foot clean room necessary to begin a research trial that was slated to start in November and last through March.

In the end of September, Jacob says he got word that the mall's owner, Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group, had changed its mind about letting his company continue to stay in the Northgate Medical building.

Jacob phoned Art Spellmeyer, Simon's senior vice president of development, to ask for permission to extend his company's stay in the building. He said he even offered to pay full rent, maintenance, and insurance on the entire building for three extra months.

Jacob said "Art Spellmeyer told me: The number for you to stay in that building is the net present value for Barnes & Noble to stay in that lease for 10 years." Barnes & Noble is a book superstore chain that is reportedly considering opening a store at Northgate Mall.

Since that was economically unfeasible, Jacob declined Spellmeyer's offer. Four days later, all tenants of the Northgate Medical building received a form letter from Simon stating that even though their lease only promised a 30-day notice, they were being given the courtesy of a 90-day notice to vacate by Dec. 31.

The tenants responded by writing a group letter to Simon requesting an extension until April 30, 2000 in order to move facilities and inform patients. That request has apparently been declined.

Stalin told the Jet City Maven that NW Biotherapeutics knew well in advance that they would have to vacate on Dec. 31 because the aging building was slated to be demolished.

"It's just not economically feasible to keep the whole building open," said Stalin. "The major tenant (Northwest Hospital) is leaving. Only a handful of doctors are left."

He added that the mall has not yet decided if the Northgate Theatre will also be leveled when it demolishes the Northgate Medical building.

Northwest Hospital spokeswoman Suzi Beerman said the hospital sent a letter on April 21 of this year to all its sublease tenants at the Northgate Medical building to inform them that it did not intend to renew its lease with the mall.

However, Beerman, added: "At that time, Simon had not stated its intentions regarding the development of that property."

The only delay that might occur in the mall's plans to demolish the Northgate Medical building is if Simon does not receive the City's approval of its general development plan - a pre-requisite to major construction in the Northgate area which indicates how and when various portions of a large parcel of land will be developed.

The mall's GDP was originally submitted about a year ago, but was not approved. A new and revised GDP has recently been submitted.

If the process goes smoothly and there are no more delays, Simon could receive approval on Nov. 10, the day after the final public comment period. Simon would then be free to apply for a Master Use Permit that would allow it to demolish the old hospital as soon as Jan. 1.

NW Biotherapeutics says it has found a new location in Bothell's Canyon Park area, but must first build a new building because they can't find a large enough existing space due to a shortage in available lab space in Washington state.

The earliest NW Biotherapeutics could complete its new building, assuming there are no delays, is July 2000.

Although a temporary space has been found in South Seattle, Jacob says it can't be used to relocate its clinical trials.

"We can't move. Once you build, you have to build up to validation (from the FDA)," said Jacob. "Air must be filtered to remove outside contaminants."

Since the company is in the middle of its clinical trials, it would have to basically start Phase I over. Patients who are awaiting treatment may lose their window of opportunity for possible full recovery and not survive a year's wait, he said.

"Our research will basically stop at that point," said Jacob.