SAN DIEGO-Locally based REITs Excel Trust and BioMed Realty Trust have acquired new properties and/or signed contracts for an aggregate of more than $290 million in the San Diego area and in five states outside of California. Excel's deals total $157 million in

Alabama, Montana, Maryland, Florida and Virginia, while BioMed has entered into definitive agreements to acquire five properties in San Diego's primary life science submarkets of University Towne Centre, Torrey Pines and Sorrento Valley.

The $157 million in Excel deals includes two properties that the REIT has acquired for $54.6 million signed purchase contracts for five properties totaling $102 million. The two that the company has acquired are the 375,871-square-foot Vestavia Hills City Center in Birmingham, AL for $33.5 million at a cap rate of 10.3% and the 163,774-square-foot Grant Creek Town Center in Missoula, MT for $21.3 million at a cap rate of 8.5%.

The five properties for which Excel is under contract are the Brandywine Crossing and Rosewick Crossing in Brandywine and La Plata, MD with 197,884 square feet and 116,008 square feet respectively of gross leasable area for $70 million at a blended cap rate of approximately 7.5%; the 78,660-square-foot Shops at Foxwood in Ocala, FL for $14.5 million at a cap rate in excess of 8%; the 47,000-square-foot Settler’s Market at New Town in Williamsburg, VA for $13.5 million at a significant discount to a bank note that was foreclosed on and a 14,550-square-foot Walgreens in Princeton, WV for $4 million at an cap rate of 8%.

The properties that BioMed Realty Trust has agreed to buy comprise 14 life science buildings with approximately 405,000 square feet of laboratory and office space. The properties to be acquired include 4570 Executive Drive in University Towne Centre; 10240 Science Center Drive in Torrey Pines; and 11388 Sorrento Valley Road, 11404 and 11408 Sorrento Valley Road and a nine-building business park located between Roselle Street and Flintkote Avenue in Sorrento Valley.

The properties are approximately 92% leased on a weighted average basis to a high-quality, diversified tenant roster, which includes Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, the University of California at San Diego, eBioscience, Inc. and Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc. The acquisitions would increase BioMed's San Diego portfolio to approximately 1.8 million rentable square feet.

Alan D. Gold, BioMed's chairman and CEO, describes the tenant rosters at the properties as "top-caliber life science organizations from each of our primary tenant classifications: research institutions, A-rated public companies, larger, established public companies, mid-stage life science companies and early-stage life science organizations."