Oxford Properties Buys 4 Life Sciences Buildings
Posted on 01/12/2021
Oxford Properties Group, the real estate unit of Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, acquired four life sciences assets totaling 415,000 square feet, and developable land for US$ 276 million, with anticipated follow on investments of US$ 500 million in the assets. The acquisitions come as part of Oxford’s strategy to build a life sciences business in an asset class. Oxford intends to deploy an additional US$ 500 million of capital into these investments through development of new biotech space and converting existing office and retail uses into new lab space at the Bay Area asset and has identified value-add opportunities within the Boston portfolio.
Oxford acquired Public Market Emeryville in a partnership with City Center Realty Partners (“CCRP”), a San Francisco-based real estate developer and investor. The seller was a joint venture between Angelo Gordon and CCRP, and was represented by Newmark’s Steven Golubchik and Nicholas Bicardo. The 148,000 square foot mixed-use project, comprises lab space, retail, food and office use located within the established life sciences cluster of Emeryville in the San Francisco Bay Area. The investment includes 36,000 square feet of ground floor first generation lab space, the popular food hall, and approximately 60,000 square feet of current office and retail space identified for conversion to lab space. The deal also features land parcels that have the potential to be developed to add new purpose-built lab product in a market that currently features almost zero availability for lab space.
Oxford also recently acquired three assets in the Greater Boston area. 33 New York Avenue is a core, recently completed 114,000 square foot state-of-the-art biomanufacturing facility which is 100% leased to Replimune Group Inc and CRISPR Therapeutics. It also purchased 1 & 5 Mountain Road, two adjacent buildings that comprise 153,000 square feet and are currently leased in their entirety to Sanofi. It has identified significant value-add opportunities for 1 & 5 Mountain Road.
Oxford’s push into Life Sciences in North America will initially focus on Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, and other emerging locations that Oxford has early excitement over. Beyond North America, Oxford is also reviewing opportunities across Europe as it looks for global exposure to the asset class. Over the past few years it has built expertise in the space and deployed capital into the sector through a variety of equity and credit investments.