In November 2004, Mayor Michael Bloomberg called for proposals to develop the privately-funded, $700 million East River Science Park, which is meant to put Manhattan on the bioscience map. The Mayor said the campus would be built between 28th and 29th streets, First Avenue and FDR Drive; south of New York University Medical Center and north of Bellevue Hospital Center.
According to a release at the time, "The project is a major component of the City's effort to make it a center for the growing life sciences and biotech sectors, and is expected to be the flagship location for companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, research and medical device fields, creating an estimated 2,000 permanent jobs and 6,000 construction jobs over the next 10 years."
In August 2005, Alexandria was named developer of the project. At the time, Alexandria CEO Joel Marcus said in a release, "Alexandria is proud to be the designated developer for this truly unique and innovative commercial life science destination. Together with the City, EDC and the New York healthcare community, we look forward to carrying out the vision of forming a bioscience community that will be equipped with all of the components to foster the great medical discoveries of the future."
Plans have changed slightly since Alexandria was chosen. Now the East Rover Science Park will be built in two phases. Part one, which is due to break ground in the near future, will include two office/lab buildings, totaling 670,000 sf. Tower one will be 16 floors and house a conference center, cafe, space for clinical drug operations and other translational uses. The second tower will also have a ground floor retail component. In the first phase, a glass-enclosed Winter Garden will be built. The garden will has a riverfront esplanade as part of the open space design.
In phase two a third office/lab building, totaling 420,000 sf, will be built. There is no timeline yet for completion of either phase. Initially, when Alexandria was named developer the firm put a 2008 deadline on the first tower in phase one.
In November 2006, Alexandria acquired a Massachusetts' bio-tech building, the 184,577-sf Life Science Square in Cambridge, for more than $95 million from the Beal Cos. LLP, as GlobeSt.com reported. Earlier in the year, the company purchased the seven-building Technology Square, also in Cambridge, for $600 million.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
