Alexandria Reports Improved Sales and Leasing Amid Financial Hardships

Leasing has picked up steam for Alexandria Real Estate Equities, but the real estate investment trust continues to struggle with financial hemorrhaging.

The REIT, which invests heavily in laboratories and life sciences facilities, reported a net loss of $638.5 million in the third quarter of 2026 compared to the same period last year when it lost $234.9 million, according to executives who spoke during Alexandria’s Tuesday earnings call.

Funds from operations (FFO) landed at $264.4 million in the last quarter in contrast to the $296 million in the second quarter and $377.8 million year-over-year. Third-quarter revenue closed at $671 million compared to $662.7 million at the end of the second quarter but declined from $751.9 million in the third quarter of 2025.

“Despite the current challenges in the life science real estate market, we continue to benefit from a high-quality tenant base with 57 percent of our annual rental revenue coming from the investment-grade or publicly traded large-cap tenants,” Joel Marcus, Alexandria’s executive chairman and founder, said during the call. 

Some items in its portfolio are in contract to sell, such as 421 Park Drive of the Alexandria Center for Life Science – Fenway Megacampus in Boston for about $136 million. The potential buyer for that deal was not disclosed. Alexandria sold $234 million in assets in the third quarter.

Alexandria recorded 87.1 percent occupancy across its operating properties as leasing numbers have picked up, in the third quarter in particular. The REIT leased 1.2 million square feet of space in the three months ending Sept. 30, which exceeded 979,822 square feet signed on average in the six preceding quarters.

The company will still face significant challenges in 2027, when up to 1.4 million square feet of leases will expire, and with it an estimated $100.5 million of annual rental revenue. This space is expected to remain on the leasing market for ​​nine to 24 months.

Alexandria’s earnings over the last couple of years have been a saga of distress, with Marcus often blaming a flood of new supply in the lab space market following the COVID pandemic when life science facilities seemed like one of the few safe commercial real estate investments.

Then came the second coming of Donald Trump’s administration, which Alexandria has attributed to steep declines in funding for scientific research.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.