BXP Sells Interest in 2 Life Sciences Developments Valued at $1.7B
By Greg Cornfield November 30, 2023 10:25 am
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In an industry pining for investment activity, real estate investment trust Boston Properties (BXP) (BXP) has agreed to sell a 45 percent interest in two life sciences developments valued at about $1.66 billion.
Norges Bank Investment Management is investing $746.4 million to form the joint venture with BXP on 290 Binney Street and 300 Binney Street in Kendall Square in Cambridge, Mass. Both projects will total nearly 810,000 square feet, putting the value at a whopping $2,050 per square foot.
AstraZeneca has fully pre-leased 290 Binney Street, a 16-story, 570,000-square-foot laboratory and life sciences property under construction. The pharmaceutical and biotech tenant is expected to take over in April 2026.
The Broad Institute is the pre-lease tenant set to move into the six-story property at 300 Binney Street in January 2025. The six-story property is being redeveloped into 240,000 square feet of laboratory and life sciences space.
BXP will retain a 55 percent interest in both projects and provide development, management and leasing services.
Greater Boston is the biggest U.S. life sciences hub and top biopharma cluster in the nation. But rising inflation and interest rate hikes have stifled demand and brought sales and leasing activity seemingly to a halt. After the first three quarters, this year was set to be the slowest year for Boston lab sales since 2017.
BXP’s life sciences portfolio consists of 3.9 million square feet. The REIT also has approximately 5.8 million square feet of life sciences-focused development opportunities, with 1.6 million square feet of lab developments and redevelopments underway and expected to deliver in the next three years.
Gregory Cornfield can be reached at gcornfield@commercialobserver.com.
