In the current climate of a struggling life sciences real estate marketplace, an artificial intelligence biotech startup has secured a significant amount of lab space in Cambridge.
Lila Sciences has signed a lease for 235,000 square feet at both 1 and 5 Alewife Park, a development by IQHQ that is currently under construction.
IQHQ commenced work on the Alewife Park project earlier this year, having acquired the 27-acre campus close to the Alewife MBTA station in 2020 for a hefty $125 million.
This ambitious project aims to establish a total of 762,000 square feet, distributed among five buildings designated for lab and office use.
Despite these new developments, the Greater Boston life sciences market continues to face significant challenges, with millions of square feet of lab space currently unoccupied across the region.
Interestingly, in the West Cambridge submarket alone, there was a positive absorption of 148,000 square feet of life sciences space reported in the third quarter, surpassing all other submarkets in the city, according to data from CBRE.
In the realm of property sales, Sendero Capital has acquired a 76,000 square foot medical office building at 200 Unicorn Park for $31.5 million.
This building is currently fully leased to tenants, which include Winchester Hospital and Excel Orthopedic Specialists.
A CBRE team facilitated the transaction, representing the seller, Unicorn Property Corp.
Private equity giant Blackstone also made headlines by purchasing an 87,000 square foot industrial property located at 150 Salem Turnpike in Saugus.
Blackstone acquired the property from Hilco for $58.5 million, and it was custom-built for UPS, which remains a tenant at the location.
In conjunction with this deal, Blackstone obtained a $42 million acquisition loan from American International Group.
Additionally, a housing nonprofit known as the Housing Corporation of Arlington has successfully purchased a 59-unit apartment building located at 840-846 Massachusetts Ave. in Arlington from Torrington Properties for $20.5 million.
The financing for this sale includes a grant from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s Community Catalyst Fund.
On the leasing front, Uniqlo has signed a lease for 25,000 square feet at 399 Washington St., situated near Downtown Crossing.
The 75,000 square foot office building, co-owned by Hudson Group and Assembly Investments, still has 50,000 square feet available for lease following their acquisition of the property in March for $13 million.
Turning to financing news, Walker & Dunlop secured $356 million in funding for Harbor Group International.
This financial arrangement covers a sprawling 1,817-unit portfolio spread across Marlborough, Bridgewater, Worcester, and Warwick, Rhode Island, encompassing a total area of 1.8 million square feet built between 1970 and 1974.
The properties included in the sale are Royal Crest Marlboro in Marlborough, Waterford Village in Bridgewater, and Wexford Village in Worcester, as well as Royal Crest Warwick in Warwick, Rhode Island.
In another development, Drucker Associates is investing $5 million in capital improvements for its office building at 211 Congress St. in Boston.
This initiative follows the securing of 45,000 square feet in new leases and renewals earlier this year, with 8,000 square feet of those leases occurring in the last quarter.
Lastly, MassDevelopment has granted an $11 million loan to Bratt LLC for the construction of a 45-unit mixed-income rental housing project at 199 Barnstable Road in Hyannis.
The project will feature 40 market-rate units and five units aimed at families earning no more than 65% of the area median income, with construction already underway and expected to finish by the second quarter.
Moreover, Jumbo Capital has filed plans for a senior housing project at the site of an old office campus located at 888 Worcester St. in Wellesley, aiming to demolish existing structures to make way for new residential units.
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