PLAINSBORO, N.J. — Cushman & Wakefield has brokered the sale of a 44,400-square-foot life sciences facility located at 107 Morgan Lane in Plainsboro, a suburb of Princeton. At the time of sale, the single-story building was leased to a subsidiary of global pharmaceutical firm WuXi AppTec. Frank DiTommaso, David Bernhaut and Andy Merin of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller, XBL Realty, in the transaction. The buyer was undisclosed.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — San Diego-based REIT BioMed Realty has broken ground on 585 Kendall, a 600,000-square-foot life sciences facility in the Kendall Square area of Cambridge that will be a build-to-suit for Japanese pharmaceutical giant Takeda. CBT Architects designed the facility, which will include a 30,000-square-foot performing arts center with a 400-seat theater that will be open to the public. Completion of the project is slated for 2026.
CARLSBAD, CALIF. — Oxford Properties has expanded its life sciences portfolio in metro San Diego with the acquisition and long-term leaseback of Ionis Pharmaceuticals’ 18.4-acre life sciences campus and corporate headquarters in Carlsbad. As part of the transaction, Ionis will lease the properties for a minimum of 15 years. Additional terms of the transaction were not released. The three-building campus offers 250,000 square feet of existing office and life sciences space with chemistry labs, biology labs and R&D support systems, as well as a modern office space. The buildings were constructed between 2011 and 2021. Founded in 1989, Ionis is a publicly traded biotech company and a leader in discovering and developing RNA-targeted therapeutics.
WESTON, MASS. — Newmark has arranged financing for Riverside Labs, a 340,000-square-foot life sciences project in Weston, a western suburb of Boston. Riverside Labs will comprise three buildings, the first of which is slated for a summer 2023 delivery. David Douvadjian Sr., Timothy O’Donnell, Brian Butler, David Douvadjian Jr. and Conor Reenstierna of Newmark arranged the debt through Royal Bank of Canada on behalf of the borrower, a partnership between Greatland Realty Partners and Rockwood Capital. The loan, the amount of which was not disclosed, is part of Royal Bank of Canada’s $150 million total commitment to the development.
IRVINE, CALIF. — CBRE has negotiated the sale of a life sciences facility located at 6 Thomas in the Irvine Spectrum Center neighborhood of Irvine. MP Biomedicals LLC acquired the property for $11 million. Ross Bourne and Chip Wright of CBRE represented the undisclosed seller in the deal. Situated on approximately 1.5 acres, the 28,835-square-foot building was converted from a light manufacturing property to a lab in 2005. Previous tenants of the building include Eagle Pharmaceuticals, Enevate Corp., BIT Group and Planet Innovation.
Combinations of offices with laboratories, research and development spaces and/or manufacturing areas make life sciences facilities highly customizable. These multipurpose, technical spaces are in high demand from companies seeking first-class facilities for research-based advancements. Low vacancies, high rents and the chance to convert unused office or retail spaces on a faster timeline have prompted some creative approaches to retrofit existing space to fulfill the needs of science and technology tenants. In other instances, facilities must be built from the ground up to conform to best practices. But what factors matter most to the life sciences field? And how can developers increase their speed to market? Read on for tips and checklists for developers hoping to speed up the process of building or retrofitting these facilities. Industry Drivers: Speed to Market and Flexibility Office conversions into life sciences facilities offer a variety of options. Life sciences facilities often do not need to accommodate large trucks (eliminating circulation and loading dock concerns), they use office components and (most importantly) office conversions offer faster speed to market than other types of conversions. “Speed to market is most important for these developers/tenants. There is a shortage of space, so a well-designed, spec building will …
DURHAM, N.C. – CBRE Investment Management, on behalf of a separate account client, has acquired Park Point, a 662,607-square-foot life sciences campus located within Research Triangle Park in Durham. Although the seller and price were not disclosed, Triangle Business Journal reports that Starwood Capital sold the asset for $288 million. Starwood, along with Trinity Capital and Vanderbilt, acquired Park Point in 2019 as a vacant, single-tenant industrial building, implementing a $190 million adaptive reuse project at the 95-acre site. The property now offers flexible space solutions for office, life sciences and manufacturing tenants. Located at 4001 NC Highway 54, campus amenities include a fitness center, cafe, indoor/outdoor common areas, athletic fields, walking trails, 2,546 parking spaces and a conference and training center. Park Point also has new, efficient systems that reduce energy and water consumption and enhance indoor air quality. Electric vehicle charging stations are slated to be installed at the property. “Today’s life sciences end-users have very specific and sophisticated needs for lab and research spaces,” said Sondra Wenger, head of Americas commercial operator division for CBRE Investment Management. “We believe that Park Point meets those needs and fits well with our investment strategy. This uniquely amenitized asset benefits …
While the Research Triangle Park (RTP) is the heartbeat of all things life sciences in the Southeast, the outlying areas of the Raleigh-Durham market, commonly referred to as the Triangle, haven’t been ignored by expansive growth in the sector. Corporate announcements and expansions in Holly Springs, Sanford, Four Oaks and Hillsborough have been more prevalent in recent years, as well as in the home base of Raleigh. Amgen, a California based company, is constructing a $550 million biomanufacturing facility in Holly Springs, and Becton Dickinson recently selected Four Oaks in Johnston County for its new manufacturing site, with plans to invest approximately $25 million in the development. After many years of focusing on the manufacturing industry, Lee County, approximately 40 miles from Raleigh, is becoming a burgeoning hub for life sciences after the expansions of Pfizer’s 230-acre site. A subsidiary of Abzena chose Sanford following a nationwide search for its 325-job manufacturing facility. Also in Sanford, Astellas Gene Therapies delivered a $109 million facility in the second quarter, its first outside California. It is evident that investors and developers see great opportunity in both the heart of the Triangle’s urban cores and rapidly growing outlying counties. Developers are responding to …
BOSTON — A partnership between Lendlease and Ivanhoe Cambridge has broken ground on a $500 million life sciences project within Boston Landing, a mixed-use destination in the Allston/Brighton area. The nine-story, 350,000-square-foot building at 60 Guest St. will be branded FORUM and will feature traditional office space in addition to lab and research/development space. SGA Architects is designing the project, and Consigli Construction Co. is serving as the general contractor. Completion is slated for 2024. The partnership first acquired the land for the project from NB Development Group, the master developer of Boston Landing, in March 2021.
SEATTLE — LPC West has partnered with Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. to acquire a development site for a nine-story life sciences building near Seattle’s Space Needle. Located on the border of the South Lake Union and Uptown neighborhoods, the building will total approximately 195,000 square feet and will cater to the needs of the city’s flourishing life sciences sector. Currently in the early design stages, the Class A building will feature views of the Space Needle, Climate Pledge Arena and the Puget Sound. Additionally, the site offers full transit accessibility with access to the Seattle Center Monorail, metro transit routes and Highway 99.