Tishman Speyer Secures $750M for Harvard Enterprise Research Campus
The largest construction loan package in the U.S. so far in 2023 goes to the 900,000-square-foot development with life sciences space, apartments, a hotel, and a conference center.
By Greg Cornfield June 20, 2023 11:00 am
reprints
L’chaim, life sciences!
Tishman Speyer announced it secured $750 million in financing for the first phase of the Harvard Enterprise Research Campus (ERC), a 900,000-square-foot mixed-use project being developed with the university’s subsidiary Harvard Allston Land Company.
Otera Capital led the construction loan package, which is the largest reported in the United States so far in 2023, according to the borrower.
Construction on the 9-acre first phase is set to begin this week, and the buildings are scheduled to open in late 2025 and early 2026 adjacent to the Harvard Business School and Harvard Science and Engineering Complex in Allston, Mass.
The project will feature two laboratory buildings devoted to research and development, as well as a 343-unit apartment building and a hotel. Twenty-five percent of the new multifamily units in the first phase will be deemed affordable for individuals and families earning between 30 percent and 100 percent of the area’s median income.
Breakthrough Properties, a joint venture of Tishman Speyer and Bellco Capital, will develop, lease and operate 440,000 square feet of laboratory and office space in the two ERC buildings for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
The campus will also feature the mass-timber David Rubenstein Treehouse to serve as a conference facility. Further, ERC will incorporate street-level shops and restaurants, and more than 2 acres of open space for public events such as farmer’s markets, concerts and fitness classes.
The first phase is designed by Studio Gang, Henning Larsen, Utile, Marlon Blackwell Architects, MVRDV, Moody Nolan, Arrowstreet and Scape Landscape Architecture.
The developers said they completed one of the largest inclusionary investor initiatives in Boston history by bringing more than 150 Black and Latino individuals and households into ownership of the ERC. The group contributed more than $30 million of the project’s equity investment. Tishman said more than 30 percent of pre-construction costs and more than 15 percent of total construction costs were awarded to firms led by women and minorities.
Contact Gregory Cornfield at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.
