CHELMSFORD, MASS. — Newmark has brokered the $11.5 million sale of 1 Executive Drive, a 112,440-square-foot life sciences building located northwest of Boston in Chelmsford. The building was 87 percent leased at the time of sale, with AMETEK affiliate Spectro Scientific and semiconductor manufacturer Qorvo serving as the anchor tenants. Edward Maher, Matthew Pullen, James Tribble, Samantha Hallowell and William Sleeper of Newmark represented the seller, Boston-based Foxfield, in the transaction and procured the buyer, Rhino Capital Advisors. David Douvadjian Sr., Timothy O’Donnell, David Douvadjian Jr., Bobby Alvarado and Conor Reenstierna, also with Newmark, arranged acquisition financing on behalf of the buyer.
— By Sebastian Bernt of Avison Young — The San Diego office market is beginning to stabilize in 2025. However, recovery remains uneven amid elevated vacancy, rising sublease availability and evolving workplace strategies. While quarterly leasing activity has improved modestly— up roughly 7 percent year over year through the second quarter — overall fundamentals remain challenged. San Diego’s total office availability rate stands at 18.2 percent as of the second quarter. This is flat from the previous quarter but still up more than 500 basis points from pre-pandemic norms. Sublease availability exceeds 2.2 million square feet, a lingering effect of corporate downsizing and the continued shift toward hybrid work models. Sublease inventory is most concentrated in suburban nodes such as UTC and Sorrento Mesa, as well as Downtown San Diego. Demand remains strongest for Class A assets in suburban submarkets like UTC, Del Mar Heights and Sorrento Valley where tenants prioritize modern, amenity-rich properties. Even within these markets, average deal sizes have declined by 20 percent to 30 percent compared to 2019 levels, with users often consolidating space and seeking shorter lease terms. Downtown San Diego continues to face pronounced headwinds, with vacancy topping 25 percent in several Class B …
BILLERICA, MASS. — Newmark has arranged the recapitalization of Axis Park North, a 450,000-square-foot industrial and life sciences campus located north of Boston in Billerica. The owner, a partnership between Camber Development and Wheelock Street Capital, sold a stake in the property to GEM Realty Capital for $79 million. The percentage was not disclosed. The six-building campus can support manufacturing and research-and-development uses and is currently home to tenants such as ASMPT AEi, Generac Power Systems and SuperConducting Systems. Robert Griffin, Edward Maher, Matthew Pullen, James Tribble, Samantha Hallowell, William Sleeper, Tony Coskren and Brian Pinch of Newmark represented both sides in the transaction.
WATERTOWN, MASS. — JLL has arranged the $119.2 million refinancing of 500 Forge, a 158,683-square-foot life sciences property in Watertown, located just west of Boston. The financing consists of a $94 million senior loan from Landesbank Baden-Württemberg and a $25.2 million mezzanine loan from Tishman Speyer. The property, which is located within the Arsenal Yards mixed-use development, was fully redeveloped in 2023 to feature 60 percent lab/research-and-development space and 40 percent office space. The property was fully leased at the time of the loan closings to three tenants: Mariana Oncology, Orna Therapeutics and AvenCell Therapeutics. Brett Paulsrud, Henry Schaffer and Geoff Goldstein of JLL arranged the financing on behalf of the borrower, a partnership between Boylston Properties and institutional investors advised by J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
ST. LOUIS — McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. has completed the Midwestern Laboratory, an 84,000-square-foot project for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service in St. Louis. Hoefer Welker designed the single-story facility. Located near the University of Missouri – St. Louis campus, the project includes microbiology and chemistry labs, a processing center, large receiving area and adjacent sample prep laboratory, as well as administrative offices. The facility will coordinate and conduct laboratory services in support of the agency’s farm-to-table strategies for food safety in meat, poultry, fish and egg products. The lab will house approximately 60 employees across three branches — administration, chemistry and microbiology. In alignment with the General Services Administration’s (GSA) mission to procure space for federal agencies, GSA executed a 20-year lease with US Federal Properties for a total contract value of $115.5 million. Construction began in May 2023.
BOSTON — A joint venture led by locally based REIT Diversified Healthcare Trust (NASDAQ: DHC) has received $1 billion for the refinancing of the Vertex Pharmaceuticals headquarters facility in Boston. A consortium of lenders — Morgan Stanley Bank, Bank of Montreal, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan — provided the financing, which was structured with a five-year term and a fixed interest rate. Local investment firm RMR Group, which provides asset and property management services for the joint venture, arranged the debt. The majority of the proceeds will be used to retire $620 million in fixed-rate debt on the property, as well as to fund leasing reserves and repatriate cash to investors. Located at 50 Northern Ave. and 11 Fan Pier Blvd. in Boston’s Seaport District, the two-building facility spans approximately 1.1 million square feet. Both buildings were constructed in 2013. Vertex, which produces medicines and therapies for genetic disorders including cystic fibrosis, renewed its lease in August 2024 and will remain the property’s sole occupant through 2044. The joint venture ownership group includes multiple institutional investment groups that were not named in the announcement. Diversified Healthcare’s stake in the property is 10 percent; the company previously sold a 10 percent …
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Terrain Biosciences will open a new, 14,000-square-foot headquarters facility in Cambridge, located across the Charles River from Boston. The RNA therapeutics company will relocate from the nearby building at 400 Technology Way to Genesis 640 Memorial Drive, a 248,000-square-foot office and lab facility. CBRE represented the landlord, Phase 3 Real Estate Partners, in the lease negotiations. Colliers represented Terrain Bio. A timeline for occupancy was not announced.
BEDFORD, MASS. — Lantheus has signed a 41,000-square-foot office and life sciences lease in Bedford, a northwestern suburb of Boston.The provider of diagnostic and therapeutic products and services is taking space at The Core @ Crosby, a nine-building, 592,000-square-foot campus. Cushman & Wakefield represented Lantheus in the lease negotiations. The landlord is a partnership between Boston-based investment firm Anchor Line Partners and Alloy Properties, the national life sciences platform of TPG Real Estate.
KENILWORTH, N.J. — Newmark has brokered the $322 million sale of a facility within the Northeast Science & Technology Center, a 107-acre data center and life sciences campus located in the Northern New Jersey community of Kenilworth. Spanning roughly 2 million square feet and formerly owned and occupied by pharmaceutical company Merck, the campus comprises nine buildings with office, lab and research-and-development space, as well as a 50-megawatt substation, cogeneration and chiller plants and a central boiler facility. The buyer, New Jersey-based data center owner-operator CoreWeave, committed last fall to a 280,000-square-foot lease and a larger $1.2 billion investment at the property. The seller, a partnership between Onyx Equities and Machine Investment Group, bought the campus in 2023 for $187.5 million with plans to reposition the property into a life sciences and innovation hub. The Newmark deal team included Andrew Warin, Josh King, Brent Mayo, Doug Harmon and Jordan Roeschlaub. Cushman & Wakefield represented the buyer in the transaction.
— By Chris High, Steve Bruce and Conor Evans of Colliers — We’re in the middle of a market recalibration. On the office side, leasing has slowed significantly, with tenants downsizing footprints and pushing for shorter terms as hybrid work remains a dominant driver. In life sciences, we saw explosive growth from 2020 to mid-2022, but that pace has tapered off. VC funding is more selective, and some developers who stretched to convert commodity office and flex properties into lab space, often with less-than-ideal infrastructure, during the boom years, are now rethinking those strategies. Still, demand for high-quality, fitted lab space remains, especially in well-located projects by experienced owners like Longfellow, BioScience Properties, Sterling Bay, Healthpeak, BioMed, and ARE. These firms are adapting with thoughtful repositioning and delivering product that aligns with where tenant demand is today. In the near term, we expect continued headwinds. Commodity office space will face pressure on rents and absorption, while high-end life science campuses with strong sponsorship will be better positioned to attract demand. We expect Life Science to rebound in the next 12 to 18 months as capital markets settle and merger/acquisition (M&A) activity returns. Distressed office sales may continue as debt maturities …