Alexandria Real Estate Sells NoVA Lab for $81M

Alexandria Real Estate Equities (ARE) has sold its only asset in Northern Virginia for nearly three times its latest assessed value.

An affiliate of New York-based New Mountain Capital paid $80.5 million for the 248,186-square-foot lab at 14225 Newbrook Drive in Chantilly, according to Fairfax County property records. That’s almost $50 million more than the property’s most recent appraisal of $31.2 million, records show. 

Quest Diagnostics is the sole tenant, occupying 100 percent of the 1991-built property. Alexandria acquired the building in 1997 for $32 million before it launched its IPO, county property records show.

Alexandria CEO Peter Moglia described the property, and its mid-October sale, to shareholders as a “workhorse asset that no longer fits into our strategy,” during the REIT’s third-quarter earnings call. 

A spokesperson for New Mountain Capital declined to comment. Representatives for Alexandria did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The sale of the property is a part of Alexandria’s push to shed its non-core assets in favor of its life sciences “mega-campuses,” such as its Alexandria Center for Life Science – Shady Grove complex in Rockville, Md., just outside of Washington, D.C. It sold $1.3 billion worth of non-core assets in 2023, and anticipates to sell some $1.5 billion in properties this year.  

Meanwhile, the Pasadena, Calif.-based REIT reported in the third quarter a nearly 11 percent boost in revenue year-over-year, with most of that revenue coming from its mega-campus portfolio. It also reported the highest level of leasing volume since the end of 2022. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.