Tishman Speyer, Bellco Venture Raises $1B In Life Sciences Investment Race
Breakthrough Properties, a joint venture formed by Tishman Speyer and Bellco Capital, has raised over $1B for its Life Science Property Fund, it announced this week.
Breakthrough disclosed that it raised $465.2M in equity in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday. In a release, Breakthrough said it has raised more than $1B in aggregate for the fund and in co-investments.
The year-old fund continues to seek capital for its real estate fund in Boston’s ultra-competitive market, where major investments have pushed past the $1B mark and beyond in expanding their deep pockets of life sciences capital.
“We are excited to have established our primary property investment vehicle with dedicated partners that will enable us to act quickly on future opportunities,” Breakthrough co-founder and CEO Dan Belldegrun said in a statement.
Breakthrough acquired its first property, 105 West First St. in Boston’s Seaport neighborhood, for $80M in July 2019, launched a spec life sciences development and secured a full-building, 263K SF lease for gene-editing company CRISPR Therapeutics this summer.
“Looking ahead, we intend to be a major provider of best-in-class specialized centers — providing a complete ecosystem of support for real innovators pursuing scientific breakthroughs,” Tishman Speyer CEO and Breakthrough co-founder Rob Speyer said in a statement.
Breakthrough’s announcement comes days after life sciences competitor IQHQ raised $1.7B of equity for a new investment push largely targeted at UK assets. IQHQ is eyeing spec developments in San Francisco, San Diego and Boston, and recently purchased the 90K SF One Alewife Park at 40 Whittemore Ave. in West Cambridge for $54M, next to its 27-acre Alewife Park.
The billion-dollar funds pale in comparison to Blackstone, which last month recapitalized the nation’s largest private owner of life sciences real estate, BioMed Realty Trust, in a deal that valued it at $14.6B. BioMed owns 11.3M SF of life sciences property in major markets including Boston and Cambridge.
