LEBANON, PA. — Logistics firm DHL Supply Chain has begun construction on a 970,000- square-foot warehouse in Lebanon, a suburb of Harrisburg. The project will house manufacturing, storage and distribution space that will serve the healthcare and life sciences industries. DHL Supply Chain is constructing another building at the site as part of an initiative to invest $88 million in the regional economy and create about 200 new jobs. The first building is scheduled to be complete in the first quarter of next year.
CHICAGO AND DENVER — NexCore Group, a national healthcare real estate developer and owner, has teamed up with global investment management firm Nuveen Real Estate to acquire a portfolio of 27 medical office and two life sciences buildings spanning nearly 1.2 million square feet. IRA Capital, a private equity firm based in Southern California, sold the portfolio in two transactions totaling $620.4 million. The portfolio spans 13 states: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. The medical office properties comprise ambulatory surgery centers, micro-hospitals, freestanding emergency departments and single- and multi-tenant clinics. The properties were 99 percent leased at the time of sale to 38 tenants, the vast majority of which are well-established healthcare systems. The medical office buildings sold for about $463 million, according to NexCore, which will manage the facilities moving forward. Allianz Real Estate provided $234 million in acquisition financing on behalf of NexCore and Nuveen for the medical office portfolio. The financing is structured on a seven-year term with both a fixed-rate tranche totaling $163.8 million and a floating-rate tranche totaling $70.2 million. Chicago-based Nuveen is using equity for the medical office assets via its newly launched U.S. Cities …
PHILADELPHIA — Keystone Property Group has landed a new life sciences tenant at The Curtis, the metro Philadelphia-based developer’s 912,245-square-foot facility in Philadelphia that is a redevelopment of a former printing press. Aro Biotherapeutics Co., a developer of genetic medicines, has committed to an undisclosed amount of space at the 12-story building. Bob Zwengler, Anthony Pell, Matt Knowles and Paul Touhey of CBRE represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. Tim Conrey, Lisa Berger Baskin and K.J. Kulik of Scheer Partners represented Keystone.
By Taylor Williams The business of trading retail properties is booming across the greater Boston area, and the combination of cheap capital, a desire to recoup lost business and potential changes in tax law are prompting buyers and sellers alike to transact at a frenetic pace. As is often the case in times of robust investment sales activity, low interest rates are the straw that stirs the drink. At its latest meeting in June, the Federal Reserve opted to hold the federal funds rate — the short-term rate by which lending between financial institutions is priced — at a target range of 0 to 0.25 percent. The Fed cut rates by 100 basis points to this target range in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 outbreak and has kept them there ever since. A fiscal policy defined by record-low rates is persisting even in the face of inflation, which hit its highest mark in 13 years when the U.S. Consumer Price Index rose by 5.4 percent in June 2021 relative to June 2020. Economists have cited sustained injections of federal stimulus and relief money and elevated government spending in response to the pandemic as the key drivers of this …
HOLLY SPRINGS, N.C. — Crescent Communities will develop a life sciences project called The Yield in Holly Springs. The Charlotte-based developer expects to break ground on the first phase this fall, with the first building’s delivery expected in the summer of 2022. In the initial phase, Crescent Communities will develop three buildings focused on life sciences and biomanufacturing uses. The 25-acre site is located at the intersection of Green Oaks Parkway and Holly Springs New Hill Road, adjacent to Seqirus’ North American campus, the Holly Springs Business Park and the FUJIFILM Diosynth’s $2 billion cell culture production facility. Phase I will feature over 260,000 square feet of biomanufacturing, lab and office space. Two of the buildings will be constructed to meet Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) regulations, with each building offering approximately 105,000 square feet and the ability to accommodate single- or multi-tenant needs. The third building will be two stories of office and laboratory space designed to support the biomanufacturing buildings or demand from other office and life science users. Timmons Group, O’Brien Atkins Associates, Gilbane and the Town of Holly Springs are part of the project design team. Crescent Communities has worked with the Town of Holly Springs …
By Bob Caudill, Executive Vice President, Colliers International From public and private funding increases to the demand created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccine rollout combatting it, the life sciences sector is continuing to see a significant increase in interest from both developers and investors across the country. Rapid growth in advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMP) science, which includes gene therapy, is also driving demand for lab and manufacturing space from both early and mid-stage biotech companies. All-important leasing data points, such as vacancy and net absorption, further compare favorably to the challenged office market, suggesting even more positive days are ahead for this sector. Orange County boasts world-class life sciences innovations and is continuing to grow its educational, employment and investment footprint. Given the amount of medical device and diagnostic equipment companies in Orange County that occupy office, research and development and industrial properties, life sciences has now become the largest industry in the market. In fact, Biocom’s 2020 California Economic Impact Report has Orange County generating $37.2 billion in economic activity and supporting more than 150,000 jobs. Orange County’s growth is attributed to several factors, such as UC Irvine’s $1 billion expansion of its Medical and Health Sciences Complex. UC …
PHILADELPHIA — A partnership between New York City-based developer The Plymouth Group and private investment firm Centerbridge Partners LP has broken ground on Budd Bioworks, a 450,000-square-foot life sciences project in Philadelphia. The property will be located at the site of the former plant of The Budd Co., a defunct manufacturer of automotive parts, in Philadelphia’s “Cellicon Valley” area. Budd Bioworks represents Phase I of a larger, 2.4 million-square-foot life sciences development. The development team also plans to incorporate residential, restaurant and retail uses in subsequent phases of the repositioning of the larger Budd Co. campus. Colliers International has been tapped to lease the life sciences component of the project.
By Brendan Carroll, director of research, Cushman & Wakefield The rapid emergence of greater Boston in the first two decades of the 21st century as a global center of advanced, technology-assisted biology has been followed by an even faster rate of growth since the start of the new decade. We have reached a critical mass in the greater Boston market, where we have developed a combination of skills, institutions and collaboration between companies that is supported and financed by an investor base that is qualified to evaluate the potential efficacy of new innovations. This landscape has created a self-propagating ecosystem for development and absorption of life sciences properties. The region’s large inventory of lab space has also evolved as a driver of new users into the market as biotechnology groups increasingly focus on speed to market for promising scientific breakthroughs. In response to these drivers, the inventory of biotechnology-focused laboratory space in greater Boston, which eclipsed 20 million square feet in 2016, is now on pace to reach 30.7 million square feet by 2023. Furthermore, the current inventory levels will likely approach and surpass 40 million square feet this decade, as a sizable set of projects are expected to move …
PITTSBURGH — A partnership between nonprofit developer The University Financing Foundation (TUFF) and full-service firm Collaborative Real Estate has acquired Bridgeside Point, a 160,000-square-foot life sciences facility in Pittsburgh. The property is located adjacent to the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University campuses and includes lab, office and academic space. Patterson Real Estate Advisory Group arranged acquisition financing for the deal through Georgia-based Ameris Bank.
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — Regeneron (NASDAQ: REGN), a medicine manufacturer known for its COVID-19 antibody cocktail, plans to invest $1.8 billion over the next six years to support the expansion of its life sciences headquarters in Tarrytown, about 25 miles north of Manhattan. Located in Westchester County on the east bank of the Hudson River, the project will expand Regeneron’s research, preclinical manufacturing and support facilities, while creating an estimated 1,000 new full-time jobs. “The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of continued and long-term investment in the biopharmaceutical industry, and Regeneron is proud to pursue life-changing science and technology from our labs and manufacturing facilities in New York State,” says Leonard Schleifer, president and CEO of Regeneron. The project is expected to encompass up to eight research and development buildings, three parking garages and a central utility plant totaling approximately 900,000 square feet. Regeneron has indicated that road infrastructure improvements will be necessary to support the new buildings, which will come on line in two phases. Construction planning will begin this summer and project construction is scheduled for completion in 2027. No members of the project team were disclosed. The life sciences firm chose to expand in Tarrytown following site …