ROCKVILLE, MD–Earlier this week, HFF announced it brokered the sale of the GSK Global Vaccine Centre for $337.5 million. The three-building vaccine R&D facility totals some 635,058 square feet and is fully leased to a subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline.
The buyer, it has now been revealed, is a core real estate fund managed by GI Partners on behalf of The California State Teachers' Retirement System.
However, at the time HFF did not reveal the buyer, leaving the market to conclude that the property's presence in suburban Maryland's so-called DNA Alley was the reason. To be sure, that likely had much to do with it — the state ranked No. 6 on the top 10 US life sciences clusters in 2016 in JLL's Annual Life Sciences Outlook Report, up from No. 13 in 2015.
But a look at DataCore's mission adds more nuance to the purchase. CalSTRS and GI Partners created the fund in 2012 to invest in technology-advantaged real estate in the US, including data centers, internet gateways, corporate campuses for technology tenants, and life science properties. Their unifying factor is that such properties have historically traded at higher cap rates, partially due to the additional underwriting expertise required to evaluate these investments.
It wasn't just GSK Global Vaccine Centre's life science bona fides in other words. And with life sciences now grouped in the same bucket as other categories such as data centers, the universe of investment options suddenly becomes much larger for buyers. Pure play life science investors, by contrast, have fewer options and little leeway in pricing.
Another item to note: there actually two funds with this mandate. GI Partner proposed a similar fund to CalPERS as well, called Techcore. It has acquired at best a handful of buildings in this submarket including the 9911 Belward Campus Dr. in Rockville — a life science facility comprised of 290,000 square feet — and Liberty Park at Tysons, a 225,038 square foot data center and office property in Vienna.
Apparently, one could assume, there are plenty of good deals to be had elsewhere.
ROCKVILLE, MD–Earlier this week, HFF announced it brokered the sale of the GSK Global Vaccine Centre for $337.5 million. The three-building vaccine R&D facility totals some 635,058 square feet and is fully leased to a subsidiary of
The buyer, it has now been revealed, is a core real estate fund managed by GI Partners on behalf of The California State Teachers' Retirement System.
However, at the time HFF did not reveal the buyer, leaving the market to conclude that the property's presence in suburban Maryland's so-called DNA Alley was the reason. To be sure, that likely had much to do with it — the state ranked No. 6 on the top 10 US life sciences clusters in 2016 in JLL's Annual Life Sciences Outlook Report, up from No. 13 in 2015.
But a look at DataCore's mission adds more nuance to the purchase. CalSTRS and GI Partners created the fund in 2012 to invest in technology-advantaged real estate in the US, including data centers, internet gateways, corporate campuses for technology tenants, and life science properties. Their unifying factor is that such properties have historically traded at higher cap rates, partially due to the additional underwriting expertise required to evaluate these investments.
It wasn't just GSK Global Vaccine Centre's life science bona fides in other words. And with life sciences now grouped in the same bucket as other categories such as data centers, the universe of investment options suddenly becomes much larger for buyers. Pure play life science investors, by contrast, have fewer options and little leeway in pricing.
Another item to note: there actually two funds with this mandate. GI Partner proposed a similar fund to CalPERS as well, called Techcore. It has acquired at best a handful of buildings in this submarket including the 9911 Belward Campus Dr. in Rockville — a life science facility comprised of 290,000 square feet — and Liberty Park at Tysons, a 225,038 square foot data center and office property in Vienna.
Apparently, one could assume, there are plenty of good deals to be had elsewhere.
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.
Erika Morphy
Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.
