Related Beal Buys 50% Of Innovation And Design Building, New Lab Space Planned
Jamestown has entered a joint venture with Related Beal to explore lab opportunities at one of the Seaport's most visible buildings.
Related Fund Management purchased a 50% stake in Jamestown’s Innovation and Design Building, a 1.4M SF Seaport manufacturing hub, with the goal of adding office and lab space in 2021, the companies announced in a statement Monday.
The joint venture claimed the deal was the city’s second-largest commercial real estate transaction of the year, but financial terms were not disclosed. Fidelity Investments' repurchasing of its 900K SF corporate headquarters at 245 Summer St. for $727.5M was the largest office deal in Boston this year.
Representatives for the companies didn't respond to questions about the price, and a record of the deal was not available in Suffolk County land records.
The 102-year-old IDB anchors the eastern end of the Seaport, and the massive structure previously served as the U.S. Department of Defense’s facility to repair and overhaul ships. Today the property houses office tenants like Reebok and life sciences tenant Ginkgo Bioworks.
Atlanta-based Jamestown purchased the IDB from Millennium Partners in 2013 for $72.7M, and Jamestown has since invested more than $200M in upgrades to the building, including a street-level promenade with restaurants and event spaces.
“We look forward to our new partnership with Related Beal and leveraging our shared experiences to embark on the third phase of the property’s transformation, further expanding the ecosystem of interconnected businesses within The IDB,” Jamestown President Michael Phillips said in a statement.
The joint venture said it aims to attract lab tenants after the hot market showed no signs of slowing down despite the coronavirus pandemic this past year. The site has shuttles to the North Station and South Station transportation hubs in downtown and sits near multiple stops on the MBTA’s Silver Line bus route.
“Related Beal and Jamestown have a longstanding history in the Eastern Seaport neighborhood’s life science sector and are committed to serving the strong demand we continue to see in this submarket,” Related Fund Management Managing Director Patrick Sweeney said in a statement.
Related is adding to its significant footprint in Boston’s Seaport, which has seen a flurry of lab-oriented development deals in 2020.
