BLUE BELL, PA. — CBRE has arranged two life sciences leases totaling 13,067 square feet at PROTECS Innovation Center, a 50,000-square-foot lab and life sciences building in the northern Philadelphia suburb of Blue Bell. Molecular diagnostics firm KorGene committed to 8,259 square feet, and pharmaceutical and biotechnology firm ThirdLaw Technologies inked a deal for 4,808 square feet. Paul Touhey and Cody Lehrer of CBRE represented the landlord, 4 Valley Square Group LP, in the lease negotiations.
CHICAGO — Sterling Bay has unveiled plans to develop a 320,000-square-foot life sciences building within its Lincoln Yards mixed-use project in Chicago. Designed by Gensler, the facility will be situated along the North Branch of the Chicago River. The plans come on the heels of successful leasing activity at 2430 N. Halsted St., a redevelopment project that Sterling Bay undertook to create state-of-the-art lab space. The building is now more than 50 percent leased to Evozyne, Exicure Inc. and Vanqua Bio. Evozyne, a Chicago-based molecular engineering technology company, recently signed a 30,000-square-foot lease at the property. Evozyne’s space is scheduled for completion in early 2021. David Saad of CBRE represented Sterling Bay in the lease transaction with Evozyne.
BOSTON — Gene editing firm CRISPR Therapeutics has signed a 263,500-square-foot life sciences lease at The 105, a new development in Boston’s Seaport District by Breakthrough Properties. Construction of The 105 began earlier this year and is expected to be complete in early 2022. Cushman & Wakefield represented the tenant in the lease negotiations. Newmark Knight Frank represented Breakthrough Properties, which was launched in 2019 by New York City-based Tishman Speyer and biotech investment firm Bellco Capital. Gene editing refers to technologies that give scientists the ability to change an organism’s DNA.
CARLSBAD, CALIF. — BLT Enterprises has purchased an industrial life sciences property located at 2827 Whiptail Loop West in Carlsbad. RPG sold the asset for $40.4 million. Completed in 2019, the 146,100-square-foot property features 30-foot clear heights, eight dock-high doors, four grade-level doors, 4,000 amps of power, Grade B, C, D classification clean rooms, a dedicated lab exhaust system, a vacuum pump system and a PH neutralization system. SAFC Carlsbad Inc. fully occupies the property. The tenant is a subsidiary of Merck KGaA, a multinational pharmaceutical, life sciences, research and development company headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany.
BOSTON — BioMed Realty, an owner-operator of life sciences real estate, has entered into a partnership with Cresset Development and Boston-based Novaya Real Estate Ventures to acquire the XMBLY Campus at Assembly Square in the Somerville area of Boston. The campus spans 162,000 square feet of office and life sciences space and includes 7.5 acres for additional expansion. The new ownership plans to add lab, research and development and traditional office space. A timeline for construction has not yet been established.
EMERYVILLE, CALIF. — Newmark Knight Frank (NKF), on behalf of property owner BioMed Realty, has arranged $165 million in financing for an asset located at 5300 Chiron Way in Emeryville. The Class A life sciences building, which totals 303,509 rentable square feet, is located within Emeryville Center of Innovation. Zymergen, a science and material innovation company, fully occupies the property. BioMed will use the loan to transform the asset into a specialized and innovative high-tech environment for the tenant’s new headquarters location. Ramsey Daya and Chris Moritz of NKF’s Debt & Structured Finance office in San Francisco secured the financing for the owner, which is a provider of real estate solutions to the life science and technology industries.
HOPEWELL, N.J. — A partnership between full-service real estate firm Lincoln Equities Group and New York City-based H.I.G. Realty Partners has acquired Princeton West Innovation Campus, a 1.2 million-square-foot life sciences property in Hopewell, New Jersey. The 433-acre development, which is located about seven miles from Princeton University, is the former campus of Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS). The New York City-based biopharmaceutical firm announced in late 2016 that it would gradually begin ceasing operations and shutting down the campus, according to centraljersey.com. The sales price was not disclosed, but the property flyer notes that BMS had invested more than $500 million in capital improvements to the campus prior to the sale. “Given the current public health crisis, we anticipate pharmaceutical and life sciences manufacturers to consider ‘reshoring’ and expanding operations in the United States,” says Joel Bergstein, president of Lincoln Equities. “This spacious, modern BMS campus — located in the center of ‘Einstein’s Alley’ in Central New Jersey — is a prime location for continued innovation and expansion.” Lance Bergstein, an acquisition and development officer at Lincoln Equities, pointed to the region’s skilled and qualified workforce as another key driving factor behind the acquisition. “New Jersey has one of the …
ANDOVER, MASS. — IQHQ, a Boston-based REIT, has acquired Innovation Park, an approximately 200,000-square-foot life sciences and office located in the northern Boston suburb of Andover. The sales price was $35.9 million. Located at 4 Corporate Drive, the property features Class A office and lab space, as well as ground-floor retail space. University of Massachusetts Lowell and clinical research firm Ora Inc. recently leased space at the campus. Colliers International represented IQHQ in the transaction.
CHICAGO — Skender has completed interior construction of the 23,000-square-foot headquarters for Paragon Biosciences LLC in Chicago. The life science innovator, which invests in, builds and advises bioscience companies, has relocated to the 35th floor of 330 N. Wabash from its current office in Northbrook. Components of the new office include open office workstation areas, private offices, conference rooms, two reception areas, a warming pantry and large café. Skender collaborated with Gensler and CBRE to complete the project.
At this point, it sounds like the movie “Groundhog Day,” but 2019 was another impressive year of growth and success for the greater Boston life sciences real estate market — and that growth shows no signs of subsiding any time soon. Duncan Gratton, Cushman & Wakefield Strong levels of venture capital investment, big pharmaceutical partnerships and merger and acquisition activity continued to fuel unprecedented demand for life sciences space, not only in and around Cambridge but also in submarkets like the Seaport, Watertown and certain Route 128 corridors. Venture capital (VC) funding for life sciences, while not quite at 2018 levels, remained robust with nearly $6 billion invested through the end of November. Major funding deals that closed in 2019 include Ginkgo Bioworks ($290 million), ElevateBio ($150 million) and Beam Therapeutics Inc. ($135 million), which all committed to leasing lab space in existing buildings and new developments throughout the area. Supply-Demand Balance The urban Massachusetts life sciences market, which includes Boston, Cambridge, and the inner suburbs of Watertown, Lexington, Medford and Waltham, now enjoys an inventory of about 20 million square feet and ended 2019 with a vacancy rate of just over 4 percent. Successful speculative developments at Arsenal Yards …