ACORE Claims Keys to Would-be Life Sciences Facility in Hell’s Kitchen
By Emily Davis September 17, 2026 12:10 pm
reprints
The lender behind Georgetown Company and Beacon Capital Partners’ planned life sciences facility at 707 11th Avenue and 615 West 50th Street in Hell’s Kitchen has reclaimed the keys.
Acore Capital received the unconverted office properties through a deed in lieu of foreclosure valued at $60 million, according to city records filed Wednesday. ACORE’s Jason Mann, a managing director, signed on behalf of the new ownership entity, Wexford Investment Trust.
John Lawrence, senior managing director at Beacon, signed Wednesday’s property transfer on behalf of the developer.
Georgetown and Beacon acquired the next-door buildings near the corner of 11th Avenue and West 50th Street in 2021, Commercial Observer reported, paying SL Green Realty $95 million. The larger building at 707 11th Avenue previously housed the headquarters of clothing and accessories retailer Kenneth Cole.
Plans were filed in early 2023 to replace the office properties with a seven-story life sciences facility. The development would have featured laboratory, research and office spaces, according to New York YIMBY, and would have been Manhattan’s first ground-up, purpose-built life science property in a decade.
Georgetown and Beacon’s ambitious plans did not progress beyond pre-development, and ACORE filed a pre-foreclosure action against ownership in April, PincusCo reported. ACORE Capital, acting as the lender’s administrative agent, claimed the owners had fallen behind on a $60 million debt.
Multiple Manhattan facilities planned in the years immediately following the 2020 pandemic have changed hands in recent weeks and months. On the Upper East Side, Taconic Partners’ stalled Iron Horse Labs project at 309 East 94th Street sold to multifamily developer LCOR for $73 million, CO reported on Friday. Taconic’s West End Labs at 125 West End Avenue also sold in July to Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Foundation for $188 million.
Post-pandemic vacancies still weigh on the U.S. life sciences sector. In New York City, leasing volume dived 84 percent in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the previous year, according to CBRE data.
Spokespeople for Beacon and ACORE did not respond to requests for comment.
Emily Davis can be reached at edavis@commercialobserver.com.
