CHICAGO — MonoSol has signed a 35,021-square-foot lease for a new innovation and technical center located within Fulton Labs in Chicago’s Fulton Market. Headquartered in Northwest Indiana, MonoSol is a sustainable material science company that is a division of Tokyo-based Kuraray Group. The company is best known for its water-soluble, biodegradable films that are used to make laundry and dishwashing detergent packets for many household brands. When open in mid-2024, MonoSol’s innovation center will occupy the last full floor at 1375 West Fulton. The deal brings the 300,000-square-foot life sciences building to about 98 percent leased. Dan Lyne and Kelsey Scheive of CBRE represented ownership, Trammell Crow Co. Andrew Urban and David Burden of Colliers represented the tenant.
MESA, ARIZ. — McCarthy Building Co., as general contractor, and SmithGroup, as designer, have broken ground on Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 12 (ISTB12), a $185 million project at Arizona State University’s Polytechnic campus in Mesa. The multi-level research and education building will provide a centralized location for Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering’s new School of Manufacturing Systems and Networks. The 173,194-square-foot building will consist of three floors and 128,828 programmable square feet for office, meeting, industrial, research and collaboration spaces. The facility will also offer specific spaces and labs specializing in additive manufacturing; robotics for smart manufacturing and industry automation; cyber manufacturing and operations research; semiconductor manufacturing; and manufacturing systems for the energy sector. Completion is slated for November 2025. Partners on the project include WOODPATEL, PK Associates and Speedie & Associates, as well as additional integrated design services performed by SmithGroup, including MEP engineering, lab planning and landscape architecture.
CHICAGO — Belay Diagnostics has expanded its lease to just over 10,000 square feet at Fulton Labs in Chicago. The expansion comes only a few months after the initial lease signing in August. The company, which uses a proprietary molecular testing platform for detecting brain and spinal cord cancers, leased an additional 6,100 square feet of space at 1375 W. Fulton. Dan Lyne and Kelsey Scheive of CBRE represented ownership, Trammell Crow Co. Fulton Labs totals 725,000 square feet across two buildings.
WESTWOOD, MASS. — Developer Lightstone Life Sciences is nearing completion of The Labs@128 Station, a 165,000-square-foot project in Westwood, a southern suburb of Boston. Upon completion, which is slated for the first quarter of 2024, Labs@128 Station will offer turnkey spaces that will be subdividable down to 5,000 square feet. J. Calnan & Associates is the general contractor for the project. Newmark is the leasing agent.
SEATTLE — Lincoln Property Co. (LPC) and Intercontinental Real Estate Corp., along with MEP as general contractor, have topped out 222 Fifth, a 10-story life sciences building under construction in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. The Class A property is on scheduled for completion in August 2024. Situated adjacent to the Seattle Space Needle, the 197,919-square-foot building will have three floors of move-in-ready Class A laboratory suites ranging in size from 11,222 square feet to 26,696 square feet. The suites can be combined for a total of 73,663 square feet of contiguous built-out lab space. Each lab suite will feature lab benches, shelving, built-in case work and a BSC and fume hood to allow immediate occupancy for tenants, as well as directly adjacent office workspace. 222 Fifth will feature robust lab amenities, including a common glass wash and autoclave/air and vacuum system/fume exhaust system/emergency power, lab-specialized loading dock with dockmaster for lab deliveries, freight elevator to all floors and lab storage. Additionally, the building will offer a 9,000-square-foot rooftop deck with views of Lake Union, Elliott Bay and the Olympic Mountains for group meetings, lunches or events. Other amenities will include a conference room, on-site retail space, on-site bike parking …
CHICAGO — Four biotech tenants have signed leases at 2430 N Halsted, a recently revamped scientific research facility owned by Sterling Bay in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. • Seq Biomarque is establishing its first location in Chicago. The company is developing a cost-effective, blood-based screening and diagnostic test for Alzheimer’s disease. • CeGaT Corp. is making its debut in the United States. Parent company CeGaT GmbH is based in Germany and works in genomics and personalized medicine. • EVOQ Therapeutics, spun out of the University of Michigan’s on-campus lab spaces, is working to reform autoimmune disease treatment with novel immunotherapies. • Cyclopure specializes in water purification and water treatment technologies. The firm has relocated and expanded its headquarters from the Illinois Science + Technology Park. Dave Gloor and Daniella Hemsley negotiated the leases for Sterling Bay on an internal basis. Jonathan Metzl and Jack Deroche of Cushman & Wakefield represented Cyclopure.
— By Julian Freeman, Dave Wensley and Gabe Pitassi — With steep vacancy rates impacting traditional office markets due to the headwinds of higher interest rates, short-term economic uncertainty and long-term remote/hybrid work uncertainties, underutilized traditional office buildings may become liabilities before the end of their anticipated economic life. Owners of these properties may consider a conversion — an adaptive reuse or repurposing — to access higher rents and occupancy rates. In view of nationwide housing shortages, especially in California, converting office to multifamily has received much attention as a logical move. However, such a conversion is not always viable from a financial, structural, legal or location perspective. An alternative option may be to repurpose an office building for life sciences use. Such a conversion, while posing its own unique challenges, may provide more realistic options than a conversion to residential use for many owners and properties. Challenges in converting to residential Converting an office building to residential use presents challenges on multiple fronts. Zoning laws vary based on property location and usage, and the property may need to be rezoned to a different classification to allow multifamily uses. Rezoning requires local government approval and public hearings, which can take months …
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Norges Bank Investment Management has signed an agreement to acquire a 45 percent interest in two life sciences properties in Cambridge’s Kendall Square neighborhood, just across the Charles River from Boston. BXP (NYSE: BXP) was the seller. The transaction includes 290 Binney Street, a 16-story, 570,000-square-foot property currently under construction. It is fully preleased to AstraZeneca, which expects to take occupancy in April 2026. The other property is 300 Binney Street, a six-story facility undergoing redevelopment. The Broad Institute has preleased the 240,000-square-foot building and plans to take occupancy in January 2025. Norges acquired the interest for an initial payment of $212.9 million and has committed to a total project cost of $746.4 million. Upon completion, the total value of the two buildings is projected to be $1.6 billion. The assets are unencumbered by debt, and no financing was involved in the transaction. BXP will retain the remaining 55 percent interest in the assets and will manage the properties on behalf of the partnership. Cambridge is among the largest hub of life sciences properties in the United States. The home of both Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the city hosts a slew of major …
WILMINGTON, MASS. — Boston-based mortgage banking firm EagleBridge Capital has arranged a $30 million loan for the refinancing of a 211,400-square-foot flex property in Wilmington, about 15 miles north of the state capital. The two-story buildings at 181 and 187 Ballardvale St. sit on a combined 15.4 acres and house a mix of office and research and development space. Ted Sidel of EagleBridge arranged the debt. The borrower and direct lender were not disclosed. The complex was 95 percent leased to 17 tenants at the time of the loan closing.
CHICAGO — Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech) has leased 34,295 square feet at Fulton Labs in Chicago. Trammell Crow Co. (TCC) is the owner and developer of the property. Illinois Tech will occupy the entire seventh floor of the wet lab facility at 400 N. Aberdeen St. The facility will serve as the university’s first off-campus move to a commercial research hub. Illinois Tech expects to take occupancy by late summer 2024. Illinois Tech researchers will focus on biomedical and biological engineering, including sensors, separation science and electrochemical energy materials along with more biology-focused research such as therapeutics development. Dan Lyne of CBRE represented TCC, while Max Zwolan and Scott Brandwein of JLL represented Illinois Tech. Perkins & Will designed the new space for Illinois Tech. Power Construction will serve as general contractor for the build-out. Fulton Labs totals 725,000 square feet across two buildings.