Cambridge Life Sciences Building Trades for $128M

The fully-leased building is the closest privately-owned laboratory/office building to Harvard University and is situated within walking distance of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

1030 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA

CAMBRIDGE, MA—Bain Capital Real Estate reports it has closed on the sale of a four-story, 77,805-square-foot life sciences building here for $128 million.

Bain Capital Real Estate, the real estate investment business of Boston-headquartered Bain Capital, acquired 1030 Massachusetts Ave. in 2016 with its operating partner on the asset, Boston-based Longfellow Real Estate Partners, who completed the conversion of the former office building into a Class A, LEED Gold-certified laboratory building in 2013.

The property was sold to an unnamed publicly-traded REIT.

The fully-leased building is the closest privately-owned laboratory/office building to Harvard University and is situated within walking distance of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Among some of the building’s notable life science tenants include Astellas, Mitobridge, Obsidian Therapeutics, as well as Waypoint, the latest restaurant concept from award-winning chef Michael Scelfo.

“This transaction is a prime example of our thematic approach to investing.  In this case, we identified an attractive opportunity to invest in a property that aligns with key secular trends driving the life science real estate market,” said Elizabeth Carrillo Thomas, a managing director of Bain Capital Real Estate.  “During our ownership period, we managed to drive significant value creation by working with the building’s tenancy in the dynamic Cambridge leasing market, and we believe the property is well-positioned for future success.”

Bain Capital Real Estate is headquartered in Boston and has invested in more than 3.5 million square feet of life sciences/lab space in the U.S. through acquisitions, development and repositioning across key cluster markets. The firm has invested more than $3.8 billion of equity in more than 400 assets across multiple sectors.

Bain Capital has US offices in New York City, Chicago, Palo Alto and San Francisco, CA.

Back in May 2016, Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, L.P. announced that it arranged $51-million in recapitalization financing for 1030 Massachusetts Ave.

Working on behalf of the borrower, an affiliate of Longfellow Real Estate Partners, HFF placed the five-year, fixed-rate loan with Capital One Healthcare.