Alexandria Real Estate Sells Life Sciences Hub in LIC for $35M

Alexandria Real Estate Equities has offloaded its life sciences office building in Long Island City, Queens, at a $40.5 million discount from its 2018 purchase price, according to city records made public Tuesday.

Alexandria, through the entity ARE-NY Region No. 2, sold the three-story building at 30-02 48th Avenue — also known as the Alexandria Center for Life Science — to North River Leerink, a subsidiary of real estate investment firm North River Company, for $34.5 million, records show.

Gary Dean, executive vice president of real estate legal affairs at Alexandria, signed the deal for the seller, while Christopher Flagg, president of North River, signed for the buyer, which used the entity 30-02 48th Ave LIC Owner, according to records.

Formerly known as the Bindery, the property between 30th Place and 30th Street was transformed from a former book bindery warehouse into a life sciences hub after Alexandria purchased it in 2018 for $75 million.

It’s unclear why Alexandria sold the property to North River for just 46 percent of its 2018 sale price, but the building seems to still have plenty of vacant office space following its conversion to life sciences space. Current tenants at the property include cancer research company Inspirna and private biotechnology company RenBio.

Newmark‘s Josh King, Adam Spies and Daniel O’Brien brokered the deal for the seller, while it was unclear who represented the buyer. Newmark declined to comment, while spokespeople for Alexandria and North River did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

North River owns and operates more than 4 million square feet of mixed-use properties and over 300 acres of ground-up development across the U.S., according to its website. Some of its New York City properties include the B&O Building at 610 West 26th Street, Buttermilk Labs at 301 Comfort Road on Governors Island, and the Anable at 33-02 48th Avenue in Long Island City, Queens. The latter location is just a few blocks away from North River’s new purchase.

Other recent Long Island City sales include The Domain Companies’ purchase of a 26,000-square-foot development parcel at 35-33 41st Street and 35-45 41st Street for $26.8 million, as well as Baron Property Group’s deal to buy a construction site at 30-25 Queens Boulevard for $82.5 million.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.