ROCKVILLE, MD. — BioMed Realty Trust has acquired the life sciences campus that houses the J. Craig Venter Institute for $53 million. The campus, which comprises five buildings and 218,000 square feet of space, is located at 9704-9714 Medical Center Drive in the DNA Alley corridor of Rockville. The Venter Institute, which previously owned its campus and occupies all of its space, will lease the facility back from BioMed for a 10-year term.
In a statement, J. Craig Venter, the Institute's founder and president, said, “We are pleased to be working with BioMed as a real estate partner, as it will enable us to remain financially sound for the foreseeable future and ensure that we can continue our groundbreaking genomic science.”
This most recent purchase increases BioMed's Maryland portfolio to six properties, which comprise 15 buildings and 1.4 million square feet of space. Most recently, BioMed acquired two life sciences buildings in Gaithersburg, Md., also within DNA Alley, for $14.4 million. The buildings total 83,400 square feet and are occupied by GenVex and an affiliate of AstraZeneca.
— Coleman Wood