HATCHspaces, NexCore Group Plan New Life Science Build in West L.A.
The project will be a 100,000-square-foot building, making it the first life science-focused new construction project of scale in the market.
A joint venture between HATCHspaces and NexCore Group has announced plans to build a new life science facility in West Los Angeles. The project will total 100,000 square feet, making it the first life science-focused new construction project of scale in the market.
This is the third life science development from the join venture, which has built two other projects in Irvine and Boulder. According to HATCHspaces co-Founder Allan Glass, the project will meet the dire need of lab facility space in Los Angeles, where the vacancy rate for like space is only 1.5% and there are several tenants actively in the market looking for large blocks of space.
Located at Pico and Sepulveda in West Los Angeles, the development is possible thanks to zoning overlays that were planned around transit stops. The property is adjacent to the Expo/Sepulveda Station of the Expo Line, which connects West Los Angeles to the rest of the city, including Downtown L.A., USC, Coliseum and Exposition Park and Santa Monica. As a result, there has been a hub of tech, AI, digital health and life science companies along L.A.’s transit line.
This project is yet another example of the boom in life science that has occurred since the pandemic. The market segment seems to be in demand in both established life science hubs like San Diego, San Francisco and Boston, as well as growth markets including Los Angeles and New York City.
According to new research from Newmark, investment volume in life science capital markets is poised to log its best year ever, with first-half 2021 numbers hitting north of $9 billion and aided by Blackstone’s recent $3.45 billion acquisition of Brookfield’s Cambridge portfolio. Nationally, pricing remains above average, and June numbers show that pricing surpassed $500 per square foot. Newmark predicts that groups like Alexandria, Blackstone/BioMed Realty, Boston Properties and IQHQ will continue to drive capital markets activity for the rest of this year.
Recent research from JLL cited Los Angeles as one of the three new emerging hubs for life science along with Raleigh-Durham, New York/New Jersey and Washington DC. Los Angeles ranked seventh in the firms top 10 life science clusters.