COLUMBUS, OHIO — IRA Capital has acquired a 237,000-square-foot life sciences campus consisting of four buildings in the Easton submarket of Columbus. The purchase price was undisclosed. The property is near I-270, the John Glenn Columbus International Airport and across from Easton Town Center, the 1.7 million-square-foot retail destination. The buildings are mostly leased to biopharmaceutical company Sarepta Therapeutics and houses the company’s Gene Therapies Center of Excellence. Sarepta specializes in genetic medicines for rare diseases and has four FDA-approved drugs treating Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. IRA closed the acquisition on an all-cash basis.
Columbia Construction, Margulies Perruzzi Complete 20,000 SF Office, Life Sciences Project in Boston
BOSTON — General contractor Columbia Construction and locally based design firm Margulies Perruzzi Architects have completed a 20,000-square-foot office and life sciences project in Boston. The space serves as an innovation and workplace training center for biotechnology firm Boston Scientific Corp. and includes procedure rooms for simulated surgeries, conference rooms with movable walls, an auditorium and amenity spaces. R.W. Sullivan handled engineering services for the project.
MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA, MASS. — Massachusetts-based life sciences company Cell Signaling Technology has purchased a 50-acre site in Manchester-by-the-Sea, about 30 miles northeast of Boston, with plans to undertake a life sciences redevelopment. Designed by architecture firm HGA, the project will convert the site of an abandoned rock quarry into a research and innovation campus that will feature 250,000 square feet of space. Ten acres of the site are occupied by the Manchester Athletic Club. A construction timeline for the project, which will be developed in phases, is still being finalized.
GRAFTON, MASS. — GFI Partners will undertake a 200,000-square-foot life sciences redevelopment project in Grafton, located in Worcester County. The Boston-based developer will convert a 33.2-acre site that was formerly part of the Grafton State Hospital campus into a two-building facility that can also support industrial usage under local zoning laws. MassDevelopment sold the parcel to GFI Partners for an undisclosed price. Construction is set to begin this summer and to be complete in early 2026.
BOSTON — Basis Investment Group, a New York City-based commercial real estate debt and equity investment platform, has purchased an equity stake in Phase III of Innovation Square, a $416 million life sciences development in Boston’s Seaport District. The company purchased a minority stake of an undisclosed value from the developer, Related Beal, the Boston office of Related Cos. Located on a 1.8-acre site at 22 Drydock St., Phase III of Innovation Square will comprise a seven-story life sciences building totaling 340,000 square feet. Related Beal is leasing the site from the City of Boston for a 99-year term. The property’s life sciences space is fully preleased to Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company based in Boston. The company also fully occupies Phase II of Innovation Square, a four-story life sciences building located at 6 Tide St. in Boston. In addition to laboratories and offices for Vertex, 22 Drydock will include dedicated lab space for Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute, a nonprofit that provides hands-on training for careers in labs to veterans and neighborhood high school students. Related Beal says the project is the first LEED Platinum and zero-net-carbon life sciences building in Boston. A net zero carbon building is a highly efficient …
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Boston Properties (NYSE: BXP) has completed the previously announced sale of its 45 percent interest in a 577,000-square-foot life sciences development in Cambridge. The buyer was Norges Bank Investment Management. Construction is underway on the 16-story building, which is located at 290 Binney St. in the Kendall Square neighborhood and is fully preleased to AstraZeneca. Delivery is slated for spring 2026.
SAN DIEGO — King Street Properties has released plans to redevelop a creative office building at 5825 Oberlin Drive in San Diego into a Mesa Labworks, a speculative lab and life sciences facility. Construction of Mesa Labworks’ first two spec lab suites is currently underway. Located in the Sorrento Mesa submarket, the 60,000-square-foot building will offer move-in ready spec lab solutions, with suites ranging from 8,000 square feet to 15,000 square feet. Scheduled for completion in August 2024, the new suites will deliver state-of-the-art lab infrastructure. Mike Novkov, Bill Cavanagh and Brett Ward of Cushman & Wakefield are handling leasing for the project.
WOBURN, MASS. — Type One Energy Group has signed a 15,500-square-foot life sciences lease in the northern Boston suburb of Woburn. The Wisconsin-based provider of clean energy solutions is relocating from nearby Somerville to 299 Washington St., which is owned by Cummings Properties. The new space will house office, manufacturing and lab uses. Al Diamond internally negotiated the lease on behalf of Cummings Properties. No third-party brokers were involved in the deal.
— By Alex Browne, life sciences research director, Transwestern Real Estate Service — The San Francisco Bay Area life sciences market has been resilient in the face of the economic headwinds of the past 18 months. Despite the mix of issues besetting other commercial real estate asset classes, life sciences assets have fared well, with quality science continuing to thrive. Any shifts within the life sciences sector have been among the landlords and tenants, as the change in deal influence has varied over the past 12 months. Starting in 2017, the bulk of the deal leverage was on the landlord’s side. This, in turn, sparked an appetite for new development looking to meet the increased demand. It wasn’t until 2022 that the tide began to turn, with tenants gaining more leverage in negotiating renewals or electing to search for more favorable, high-quality space. Even though the market’s activity tends to be overshadowed by industry headlines, deals are being done, and space is being delivered and absorbed — albeit at a slower pace. The Bay Area continues to be the second-largest life sciences hub in the nation, with healthy industry drivers that continue to fuel innovation. The region is home to …
PLEASANTON, CALIF. — Ware Malcomb, serving as civil engineering, interior architecture and design-and-build measurement services, and Metcon, as general contractor, have completed a 120,000-square-foot tenant improvement project for Unchained Labs. Located at 4747 Willow Road in the Bay Area city of Pleasanton, the two-story building features 53,887 square feet of office space, 20,379 square feet of manufacturing space and 14,779 square feet of lab and warehouse space. The newly designed facility also includes an “all hands room;” a gym and locker area with specialty private shower areas; wet labs for life sciences research and development designed with a plug-and-play approach; a lab area with a clean room and humidity-controlled room facilities; electric vehicle charging stations; and loading docks. Unchained Labs develops new tools for biologics and gene therapy researchers.