Life Sciences

By Alexandra Loye, Senior Vice President, Healthcare & Life Sciences Services, Colliers Despite global and domestic market challenges from the pandemic, Phoenix continues to shine amongst its competitive Western cities. With Maricopa County being the fastest-growing county in the U.S., Phoenix offers employers a diverse, educated workforce, business-friendly environment and affordable housing options. Arizona’s economy is booming and experiencing record revenue growth, as well as personal income growth. From 2019 to 2020, Arizona led the nation (tied with Montana) in the category of highest personal income growth with a 7.1 percent increase. The state is also projected to add 325,000 jobs in the next 12 months. Phoenix’s life sciences industry has gained significant momentum during the past 12 months, with no slowdown in sight. The Phoenix Biomedical Campus (PBC) in downtown Phoenix is ground zero for life sciences development and tenant activity. The 30-acre campus is currently occupied by Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University, Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), OncoMyx Therapeutics, Calviri, Vidium Animal Health, and Exact Sciences, which recently acquired Paradigm Diagnostics and Ashion Analytics. The PBC is the ideal environment when it comes to collaboration and innovation for life sciences tenants. The 227,000-square-foot, …

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WashREIT

WASHINGTON, D.C. — JLL Capital Markets has arranged the sale of a portfolio of eight infill neighborhood retail assets totaling 695,991 square feet in Washington, D.C., northern Virginia and southern Maryland. Stephen Conley, Danny Finkle, Jordan Lex and Kim Flores of JLL represented the D.C.-based seller, WashREIT (NYSE: WRE), which sold the portfolio for $168.3 million. The buyers were Rosenthal Properties and an undisclosed institutional partner, according to the Washington Business Journal. The news outlet also reports the seller had acquired the eight properties over the span of five decades. The portfolio includes two properties in Washington, D.C., two in Northern Virginia and four in Maryland. The properties in D.C. include Chevy Chase Metro Center and Spring Valley Village. The Virginia properties are 800 S. Washington St. in Alexandria and Concord Centre in Springfield. The southern Maryland properties are Montrose Shopping Center and Randolph Shopping Center in Rockdale; Takoma Park Shopping Center in Takoma; and Westminster Shopping Center in Westminster. The properties are 82 percent leased collectively. Four of the shopping centers are grocery-anchored by stores such as Mom’s Organic Market at Montrose Shopping Center and Aldi at Springfield’s Concord Centre. Other grocery anchors include Food Lion and Giant. The …

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SANTA CLARITA, CALIF. — Oxford Properties Group, a real estate investment and management firm based in Toronto, has purchased Santa Clarita Innovation Park, a 14-building campus situated on 118.5 acres in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Clarita. Funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management and Intertex Cos. sold the property, which was formerly known as Mann Biomedical Park, for $133.5 million. The acquisition of Santa Clarita Innovation Park falls in line with Oxford’s investment strategy as it is leased to various distribution users and life sciences firms such as Boston Scientific and Bioness. Oxford aims to have 45 to 60 percent of its assets-under-management portfolio to be in life sciences, industrial and residential real estate by 2025. In addition to distribution and life sciences, Santa Clarita Innovation Park includes some offices, a childcare facility and Wolf Creek Brewery. Additionally, the acquisition includes development rights for approximately 40 acres within the park. “Substantially growing our life sciences and industrial businesses represents our highest conviction investment strategies and top priorities at Oxford,” says Chad Remis, executive vice president of North America at Oxford. “The acquisition of Santa Clarita Innovation Park, and its additional development capacity, uniquely provides us with flexibility to build …

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PISCATAWAY, N.J. — LIXIL, a provider of water and housing products, has signed a 60,000-square-foot lease for its new headquarters at Middlesex Science Center, a 685,000-square-foot office and life sciences campus in the Northern New Jersey community of Piscataway. Keystone Property Group owns the campus, which formerly served as an office and data center for AT&T. Scott Lesh and Scott Stange of JLL represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. CBRE represented Keystone.

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NEW YORK CITY — Opentrons, a provider of lab automation technology, has signed a 47,790-square-foot life sciences lease at Innolabs, a facility located in the Long Island City area of Queens. Pandemic Response Lab, a subsidiary of Opentrons, moved in to a 13,000-square-foot space in late August. Neochromosome, another subsidiary, and Opentrons will occupy the balance of the space beginning in early 2022. Bill Harvey, Jared Horowitz, Jordan Gosin and Emma Kistler of Newmark represented the landlord, a partnership between King Street Properties, The Carlyle Group and GFP Real Estate, in the lease negotiations.

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540 Tech Center

RALEIGH, N.C. — Property Income Advisors Inc. is redeveloping 540 Tech Center, a 110,500-square-foot life sciences property in Raleigh. Located at 4912-4924 Green Road, 540 Tech Center is a two-building property that allows for research and development, office, flex and warehouse users. 540 Tech Center’s amenities include multiple entry points, a 4.3 per 1,000 square feet parking ratio, one dock door per building and two onsite generators. Property Income Advisors changed the name of 540 Tech Center from its previous name, which was the address of the building. The firm also is currently making renovations to the property, including parking lot upgrades, landscape improvements, new monument signage, exterior paint, modernized restrooms and adding a new leasing center. The newly renovated buildings will have open ceilings and expansive floor plates with one of the twin buildings ready for tenant improvements to commence by the end of the year. As of October 2021, the property will be fully vacant. Built in 1983, the previous tenant was Conduent. Mac Hammer, Kent Honeycutt and Stacy Mbithi of Cushman & Wakefield will oversee leasing at the property.

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10445-Pacific-Center-Ct-San-Diego-CA

SAN DIEGO — Sterling Bay West and Harrison Street have agreed to acquire an office and life sciences portfolio in San Diego’s Sorrento Mesa submarket. City Office REIT is selling the assets for an undisclosed price. Located at 10390-10445 Pacific Center Court, 5910 Pacific Center Blvd. and 9985 Pacific Heights, the portfolio comprises four life sciences lab buildings, an empty building ready for speculative office/lab space, two office buildings totaling 420,229 square feet and five acres of excess land. The buyers plan to develop up to 1.1 million square feet of ground-up, Class A life sciences campus facilities on the site. Construction is slated to begin in 2023 and will be completed in phases.

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Chapel-Street-Newton-Massachusetts

WATERTOWN AND NEWTON, MASS. — PCCP LLC has provided a $39.8 million loan for the refinancing of a portfolio of three life sciences and creative office buildings totaling 124,946 square feet in Watertown and Newton, two western suburbs of Boston. The two Watertown properties were built in the 1940s and total 43,344 square feet. The Newton property was constructed in 1900, renovated in 2017 and consists of 81,602 square feet. The borrower, Massachusetts-based KS Partners LLC, will use a portion of the proceeds to fund capital improvements. The portfolio was 94 percent leased at the time of sale.

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TMC3-Aerial

HOUSTON — The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is set to break ground on Phase I of TMC3, a $1.8 billion life sciences campus in Houston.  The 37-acre TMC3 master plan, which will encompass approximately 6 million square feet of development, was designed by Boston-based Elkus Manfredi Architects. Groundbreaking is scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year.  Phase I of the campus will include 950,000 square feet of space dedicated to research, anchored by a 700,000-square-foot facility developed by Beacon Capital Partners and strategic partner Braidwell; a 521-room hotel; 65,000 square feet of conference space; a 350-unit residential tower; over 2,000 parking spaces; and 18.7 acres of public space, including six parks designed by Mikyoung Kim Design.  Upon full build-out, the development will also include six future industry and institutional research buildings and a mixed-use building with retail. The campus is expected to generate up to $5.4 billion in annual economic impact for the state of Texas, as well as 23,000 permanent jobs and 19,000 construction jobs.  “It is an unprecedented time for life sciences and innovation in the U.S. and Houston has all the factors that are required for explosive growth in this space,” says Steve Purpura, president of …

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66-Galen-St.-Watertown

WATERTOWN, MASS. — Two locally based firms, The Davis Cos. and Boston Development Group, have broken ground on a 224,000-square-foot life sciences project in the western Boston suburb of Watertown. Designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects, the project marks Phase I of a larger campus that will ultimately include 450,000 square feet of space across two buildings. The first building will offer six private tenant spaces and amenities such as a fitness center, bike storage room and retail/café space. Completion is slated for mid-2023.

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