Developer Of Burlington Lab Conversion Sells Building To MetLife For $103M
MetLife Investment Management has paid $103M for a Burlington lab building that was converted from offices and fully leased within the last three years.
The New Jersey-based investment giant acquired Burlington BioCenter from a joint venture of The Gutierrez Co. and GEM Realty Capital, Newmark announced Wednesday.
The Gutierrez Co. launched a conversion of the 109K SF property from office to life sciences in 2019. The property at 4 Burlington Woods is located within Boston's fast-growing suburban life sciences market.
Newmark's Robert Griffin, Edward Maher, Matthew Pullen, Samantha Hallowell, David Douvadjian Sr. and Timothy O’Donnell worked on the deal and helped secure financing for MetLife.
"Burlington BioCenter is a core life science asset in a fast-growing laboratory cluster along the coveted Route 128/Interstate 95 corridor," Pullen said in a press release. "Its thoughtful conversion prioritized high-performance laboratory infrastructure, energy-efficient building systems and fully customizable tenant spaces, creating an ideal environment for mid-sized users."
In February, JLL announced its team had fully leased the property to three biotech companies. Ultivue leased 56K SF, Protagene leased 26K SF and CANbridge leased 27K SF. Ultivue and Protagene were represented by Avison Young's Kevin Malloy, and CANbridge was represented by JLL's Matt Daniels.
Just over 16 miles outside of Boston, Burlington is part of a major suburban life sciences cluster along Route 128 that has seen strong leasing activity as Kendall Square and the Seaport have become less attainable to smaller public and private companies.
At the beginning of the year, biotech company Vericel signed a 125K SF lease for a build-to-suit project on the 158-acre Network Drive at Northwest Park campus owned by Nordblom Co. In September, Fractyl Health signed a 78K SF lease at GenLabs, a 320K SF property at 3 Van de Graaff Drive in Burlington.
