WALTHAM, MASS. — ElevateBio, a biotech firm that specializes in gene therapy and development, will open a 108,000-square-foot office and lab space in Waltham, a western suburb of Boston. The facility will be located at 200 Smith Street in a former U.S. Post Office facility that was recently transformed into a 430,000-square-foot life sciences building. Anchor Line Partners LLC and Northwood Investors led the redevelopment project. ElevateBio’s new facility is expected to open in May 2020.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Chicago-based investment management firm Harrison Street has acquired Osborn Triangle, a 676,917-square-foot life sciences property situated adjacent to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus in Cambridge. The complex encompasses three buildings, all of which were either recently built or renovated. The sale included a 650-space parking garage. Harrison Street partnered with Bulfinch Cos., a subsidiary of MIT that retains a partial interest in the property, for the acquisition. Osborn Triangle was fully leased at the time of sale to seven tenants, including anchors Pfizer, Novartis International AG and LabCentral, an incubator for life science and biotech startups. MIT will retain long-term ownership of the land. The sales price was not disclosed.
NEW YORK CITY — Janus Property Co., a developer and manager of residential and mixed-use properties, has broken ground on the Taystee Lab Building, a 350,000-square-foot life sciences property in West Harlem. The 11-story building, located at the site of the former Taystee bread bakery, will be marketed to firms in the life sciences, technology, academic, and arts sectors. Specific features will include floor plates ranging in size from 36,000 square feet at the base to 15,000 square feet at the penthouse level, floor-to-ceiling glass and 20,000 square feet of outdoor space. Designed by architecture firms LevenBetts and SLCE, the project is expected to be complete by late 2020.
PEARLAND, TEXAS — Zeller Realty Group, a Chicago-based development and investment firm, has acquired a 276,770-square-foot biotechnology facility in Pearland, a southern suburb of Houston. Completed in 2017, the facility is located approximately eight miles south of The Texas Medical Center. The property was fully leased at the time of sale to Lonza America Inc., a Houston-based subsidiary of Swiss pharmaceutical company Lonza Group AG. Jeff Hollinden and Cameron Cureton of HFF represented the buyer and the seller, Pinchal & Co., in the sale and arranged acquisition financing through Bank of Texas.
ATLANTA —Vero Biotech has opened a new 15,585-square-foot headquarters at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Technology Enterprise Park in Atlanta. The biopharmaceutical company, formerly known as GeNO LLC, designs, develops and commercializes products for patients with pulmonary and cardiac diseases. Vero Biotech will move its administrative, research & development and manufacturing departments from its current office in Cocoa, Fla., to the new space over the next six to 12 months. The company plans to double its operations, hiring up to 40 new employees over the next year. In addition, Vero Biotech will partner with Georgia Tech to provide hands-on experience and internship opportunities for students. Chad Koenig and Ben Jackson of Cushman & Wakefield represented Vero Biotech in the lease negotiations, and Enio Guerra and Dick Bowers of Richard Bowers & Co. represented Georgia Tech.
MENLO PARK, CALIF. — Pacific Biosciences of California has leased space at the 180,000-square-foot Menlo Park Labs life science building. The space is located at 1305 O’Brien Drive. The structure was formerly an Office Max distribution facility. Other tenants at the lab include Refuge Biotechnologies and AccuraGen. The space will serve as Pacific Biosciences’ corporate headquarters. The firm leased the space through 2027. The landlord is Tarlton Properties.
TAMPA, FLA. — Amgen, a California-based biopharmaceutical company, has leased 125,000 square feet of office space at Corporate Center, a 1.2 million-square-foot office building in the Tampa submarket of Westshore. Located at 2202 N. Westshore Blvd., the Class A property will house Amgen’s new, 450-employee business support center. Cousins Properties Inc., an Atlanta-based REIT that primarily invests in Class A office towers, represented Amgen in the transaction.
NEW JERSEY — QuVa Pharma Inc. has signed an agreement to acquire an FDA-approved biotech pharmaceutical facility near Route 78 in western New Jersey. The 160,000-square-foot facility will enable QuVa Pharma to significantly extend its production capability and capacity to deliver high-quality, ready-to-use compounded sterile drug preparations to hospitals in key markets in the eastern half of the United States. QuVa currently operates two 503B-registered manufacturing facilities in Texas. Terms of the sale, including the name of the seller and acquisition price, were not released.
BOSTON — Senior Housing Properties Trust (NYSE: SNH) has obtained a $620 million mortgage loan for two life sciences buildings in Boston’s Seaport District. The 15-story, Class A towers include 1.6 million square feet of lab space, corporate office space, structured parking and ground-floor retail space. SNH purchased the towers in May 2014 for $1.1 billion. They are 96 percent leased to Vertex Pharmaceuticals through 2028. Vertex is the manufacturer of hepatitis C and cystic fibrosis pharmaceutical treatments. The 10-year loan is interest-only, carries a fixed interest rate of 3.53 percent and matures in August 2026. SNH will use the loan proceeds to repay a portion of the outstanding borrowings under the company’s $1 billion unsecured revolving credit facility, as well as for general business purposes. Following the repayment, there will be approximately $900 million available under SNH’s unsecured revolving credit facility. “We are pleased to take advantage of the current low interest rate environment to term out the majority of the outstanding balance on our unsecured revolving credit facility and to extend the average maturity of our debt to 8.9 years,” says David Hegarty, SNH’s president and chief operating officer. “We believe that this transaction also highlights the value …
CHICAGO — Giant healthcare REIT Ventas (NYSE: VTR) has agreed to acquire all the life sciences and medical real estate assets of Wexford Science & Technology for $1.5 billion. Wexford will continue to operate the portfolio, which includes 25 Class A properties totaling 4.5 million square feet. Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII LP is the current owner of the properties, which are largely leased to universities, academic medical centers and research companies. Tenants include Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania Health System, Washington University in St. Louis, Wake Forest University and Alexion Pharmaceuticals. Of the 25 properties, 23 are currently in operation and are 97 percent leased. The remaining two properties are currently under development and are nearly 60 percent pre-leased to Duke University and Wake Forest University. Chicago-based Ventas also plans to acquire nine development sites contiguous to the existing assets for $50 million. The purchase will significantly diversify Ventas’ portfolio, as the company’s previous focus was almost exclusively on seniors housing and healthcare properties. Ventas has the second-largest portfolio of seniors housing in the United States with 785 properties totaling 69,708 units, according to the American Seniors Housing Association’s most recent numbers. The transaction includes a long-term management …