Taconic Partners counts the first tenants of the new life sciences center on the Upper West Side.
Graviton Bioscience Signs 30,000 SF Lease at New York Post’s West End Laboratory report. The asking rent for the space is $125 per square foot.
Graviton develops therapies to treat autoimmune diseases. The company plans to use the space at 125 West End Avenue as its research and office headquarters.
The Westside Laboratory is one of the major new additions to the life sciences scene in New York City. This spring, an entity of Apollo Global Management provided Taconic and its partner, Nuveen Real Estate, with a $300 million loan to refinance the eight-story, 400,000-square-foot development.
The refinancing comes two years after a $600 million recapitalization. As part of the recapitalization, LaSalle Investment Management joined the project as a $207 million equity partner.
Until two years ago, the building where the West End lab was located was home to the ABC. In 2018, ABC parent company The Walt Disney Company sold the campus to Silverstein Properties for $1 billion. Silverstein turned around and sold some of it to Taconic and Nuveen for $230 million, and the rest to Gary Barnett’s Extell Development for $930 million.
Facilities at the Life Sciences Campus include a machine shop, conference center, outdoor roof terrace, and other facilities. CBRE is responsible for the marketing and leasing of the building.
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Last year, New York City’s life sciences tenants leased a record 455,000 square feet, according to CBRE. It was the second year in a row that leasing exceeded 400,000 square feet, as the pandemic showed the potential benefits of such employers in a region that is striving to become a life sciences hub akin to Boston and San Diego.
The average rent for life sciences leases in New York City last year was $108.47 per square foot, also a record for the industry.
— holden walter warner
