BOSTON– Harrison Street, one of the leading investment management firms exclusively focused on alternative real assets, along with partners The Bulfinch Companies, Inc. , a Boston based private real estate investment, development and management firm, and National Real Estate Advisors, LLC, on behalf of their clients, announced the sale of Cambridge Discovery Park, a three property life sciences campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts at a gross sale price of $720 million.
The sale represents the first realization for Harrison Street’s 2018 Vintage Year fund. Bulfinch will continue to serve as property manager and maintains an ownership interest in the park.
The portfolio includes three Class-A life sciences buildings and two parking garages totaling approximately 620,000 square feet located at 100 CDP, 200 CDP and 400/500 CDP in the West Cambridge submarket of Boston. In partnership with Bulfinch and National, Harrison Street initially invested in the development of 400/500 CDP in December 2018, which had no tenants at the time, and in eight months leased 88% of the property prior to completion of construction. Harrison Street later acquired ownership interests in both 100 CDP and 200 CDP in the spring and summer of 2019, respectively. The portfolio is currently 94% leased on a combined basis.
Ben Mohns, Harrison Street’s Senior Managing Director and Head of Asset Management – North America, said, “The successful sale of this portfolio demonstrates Harrison Street’s life sciences investing expertise and unwavering focus on creating value for our investors and partners. Notably, we executed on our business plan for the portfolio, including stabilizing the properties, nearly three years ahead of schedule and attracting best-in-class bioscience tenants. Supporting the life sciences sector by providing world-class facilities has never been more important and Harrison Street is committed to identifying attractive investment opportunities in key life sciences markets.”
Harrison Street continues to expand its presence in the life sciences sector with investments totaling over $2 billion across 3 million square feet of life sciences lab, research and innovation space. Earlier this year, the firm acquired the largest private life sciences portfolio in the UK and two newly renovated, life sciences properties in San Diego’s Sorrento Mesa neighborhood with BioScience Properties. In May 2019, Harrison Street acquired Osborn Triangle, a state-of-the-art, multi-tenant office and laboratory complex located in East Cambridge/Kendall Square in partnership with Bulfinch and a subsidiary of MIT.
Harrison Street is one of the leading investment management firms exclusively focused on alternative real assets. Since inception in 2005, the firm has created a series of differentiated investment solutions focused on demographic-driven, needs-based assets. The firm has invested across senior housing, student housing, healthcare delivery, life sciences and storage real estate as well as social and utility infrastructure. Headquartered in Chicago with an office in London, the firm has more than 185-employees and approximately $29 billion in assets under management. Clients of the firm include a global institutional investor base domiciled in North America, Europe and Asia. Harrison Street has been awarded Best Places to Work by Pensions & Investments for the last six consecutive years and was named 2019 North American Alternatives Investor of the Year by PERE.
The Bulfinch Companies is a third-generation, entrepreneurial, value-added real estate investment firm specializing in the development, acquisition, management, and repositioning of commercial properties in Greater Boston. With $3 Billion in assets, Bulfinch has built a reputation for identifying opportunities and creating valuable and coveted properties across many industries. The firm’s disciplined approach, entrepreneurial mindset, depth of experience and focus on meeting the needs of tenants and partners have produced an enviable track record and roster of tenants and investors for more than 84 years.
National Real Estate Advisors is an investment manager specializing in a build-to-core strategy, developing and managing large-scale, urban commercial and multifamily projects for its institutional client accounts. National constructs investment portfolios of modern property assets—apartment, office, mixed use, industrial (including data centers), and hotel—with design features, technological enhancements, and amenities that drive high tenant demand and can create value for investors. National is an independently operated subsidiary of the National Electrical Benefit Fund (“NEBF”), a substantial pension trust with a significant amount of assets that are managed by National on a discretionary basis.
