James Flynn
James Flynn
Managing Partner at Deerfield Management
Deerfield Management hit the headlines last year with its off-market acquisition of 345 Park Avenue South from RFR Holding. Interestingly, as part of the deal, the sale also made RFR’s Aby Rosen an investor in a life science fund.
With the purchase, Deerfield joined other investors in what has become a growing trend of life science development and redevelopment in New York City, where a deep talent pool is readily available.
“We’re big investors in early-stage biotechnology companies, early-stage digital health companies and early-stage medical technology companies,” James Flynn, managing partner at Deerfield, said. “This property is going to have incubators for all of those different important elements of health care and create an ecosystem where there’s going to be a lot of support for innovation.”
The redevelopment of the former office property at 345 Park Avenue South is underway, and progress hasn’t been overly hampered by COVID-19, Flynn said.
“The city and state have worked with us because they felt that it was an important project to continue to move forward,” Flynn said. “We’ve been able to continue construction, and it’s at full speed today.”
The global pandemic has only underscored the importance of the work that will be carried out at the building, with life science investment skyrocketing since the pandemic hit.
“This is a time where there’s going to be breakthrough cures for all kinds of diseases, and there’s a huge investment in early stage biotechnology research right now,” Flynn said. “But there are more ideas than there are labs.”
Deerfield has a broad range of investments in 300 health care companies, but Flynn said 345 Park Avenue South helps bring everything together.
The second floor is dedicated to the Deerfield Foundation, an important part of the building’s ecosystem, where the company will bring in students from CUNY — teaching them about health care and finance —and also host a Women in Science program.
An area on the top of the building will host interactions from all the different stakeholders in the health care community, from government officials to academics to scientists to the people who finance it. “I really think it’s going to be a tremendous resource for New York City, for the health care community, and certainly for us as well,” Flynn said.—C.C.
