Crédit Agricole, Fifth Third Bank Lend $160M on Oxford’s Life Sciences Acquisition
By Cathy Cunningham October 28, 2022 12:54 pm
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Oxford Properties landed $160 million in acquisition financing for its purchase of Ionis Pharmaceuticals’ life sciences campus and corporate headquarters in Carlsbad, Calif., Commercial Observer can first report.
Crédit Agricole and Fifth Third Bank teamed up on the five-year balance sheet loan while CBRE (CBRE)’s James Millon, Tom Traynor and Adam Spengler negotiated the debt, sources familiar with the deal said.
The campus comprises three properties spanning 250,000 square feet across 18.4 acres, and Oxford purchased it for $258.4 million earlier this month. As part of the sale-leaseback transaction, Ionis will lease the campus from Oxford for at least 15 years.
“Our team continues to create sustained yet highly targeted growth against one of our highest conviction global investment strategies, to build a global life science business of scale,” Chad Remis, executive vice president at Oxford, said in a release at the time of the acquisition, adding that the purchase “complements our development pipeline in San Diego.”
Indeed, in February, Oxford made its San Diego life sciences debut with the $464 million acquisition of a nine-asset, 13-building portfolio in San Diego’s Sorrento Mesa and Sorrento Valley. The Ionis deal grows Oxford’s San Diego life sciences business to 900,000 square feet across 16 buildings.
The financing marks the latest origination under Fifth Third Bank’s growing health care real estate loan portfolio, which is focused on serving institutional investors such as Oxford.
“In this challenging economic climate and increasingly uncertain lending environment, we’re proud to have delivered an attractive capital solution to allow Oxford to acquire this campus, while at the same time giving Ionis additional capital to support their ambitious growth plans,” Jason Broady, executive director and relationship manager at Fifth Third Bank, told CO.
Officials at Crédit Agricole and CBRE declined to comment. Oxford officials weren’t immediately available for comment.
Cathy Cunningham can be reached at ccunningham@commercialobserver.com.
