A taxpayer-funded stem cell research laboratory planned for the Torrey Pines Mesa is among three such facilities in the works statewide that have hit snags in their construction timelines.

A move-in date originally scheduled for December has been delayed until June 2011 for the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, a group comprised of the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, The Scripps Research Institute and UC San Diego.

Louis Coffman, vice president of the consortium, said raising money on the capital markets has proven difficult in the current economic environment.

“We’ve got all the philanthropy we’ve sought to raise,” he said. “Right now our focus is in the state bonds to fund the debt portion.”

Ultimately, the consortium aims to raise $62 million through the sale of tax-exempt bonds to finance the building’s construction, which has risen in price from $100 million to $127 million, not including the $15 million cost of land.

“Our goal is to get the building off of the ground,” Coffman said. “Afterwards, we can always pay down the debt.”

In 2008, the consortium was awarded a $43 million facilities grant from the state stem cell agency to build a four-story research laboratory along North Torrey Pines Road where scientists from a variety of disciplines could work side by side. San Diego-based Lankford & Associates Inc. was selected to develop the proposed 130,000-square-foot building on 7.5 acres across from Salk.

Hefty Contribution

South Dakota philanthropist T. Denny Sanford also stepped in with $30 million, and the consortium changed its name to reflect his gift.

The majority of that, or $22 million, will go toward the building of the facility with the remainder used for operational costs, Coffman said. But organizers were still $90 million shy of the $163 million price tag to build and equip the facility and recruit faculty.

Coffman said the institute applied last fall for federal economic stimulus funding but didn’t succeed in finding much grant money there.

Jeanne Loring, director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute, applied for one of the grants. The competition, she said, involved 25,000 other applicants.

Despite the challenges, Loring and others said they’re encouraged by the progress the consortium has made to date. At one point, they said they doubted the project would get built.