Peter Moglia and Joel Marcus

When you’re the biggest presence in your asset class, that doesn’t go away in the tougher times.

Which means that Alexandria Real Estate Equities (ARE) — which Joel Marcus founded in 1994 as the first firm dedicated solely to life sciences real estate, and which Peter Moglia leads day to day — remains a major force in commercial real estate nationally despite an industry downturn.

Pasadena, Calif.-based ARE’s portfolio stood at 39.4 million square feet at the end of 2025. Another 4 million or so was under construction. Most of this portfolio is consciously clustered in the nation’s leading life sciences markets, including the top three: Greater Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego County. 

ARE’s operating portfolio was 87.7 percent occupied as of April, according to the real estate investment trust’s first-quarter earnings report. That’s no small feat, given the rising vacancy in life sciences real estate in general. Developers rushed into the space before and during the pandemic, leading to overbuilding. Federal funding cuts for scientific research and a general pullback by life sciences companies has left a lot of that new space straining for tenants.

That hasn’t deterred ARE.

It notched 647,356 square feet of fresh leases in the first quarter of 2026. Most of that came from existing tenants, but a sizable chunk came from deals in new or redeveloped space — 117,935 square feet in total, which ARE said represents a 135 percent increase from the average during the prior five quarters.

In other words, the demand is still there — and life sciences real estate’s 800-pound gorilla is prepared to capture it.

“We are motivated each and every day by our solemn mission to enable this precious life science industry, one of the most treasured innovative industries on the face of the planet, to discover and bring to patients life-saving and life-changing therapies,” Marcus said during a first-quarter earnings call last month. “How many of our friends, loved ones, still suffer from the likes of Parkinson’s, ALS, pancreatic, colon and breast cancer?”