British Invasion: Longfellow Latest U.S. Life Sciences Firm Entering UK
Private lab owner and investor Longfellow Real Estate Partners announced a new hire in the UK this week, another example of a U.S. firm investing in the booming British biotech sector.
Alex Wright, the newly hired managing director, hails from London and previously worked at Brockton Everlast, where he helped build the firm’s life sciences portfolio, among other roles, during a 15-year career.
“Together, we will establish a high-quality portfolio to serve the full ecosystem of life science users from top universities and research institutions through to promising start-ups, scale-ups and established companies in key UK markets,” Longfellow Real Estate Partners CEO Adam Sichol said in a statement about the new hire.
The largest private owner and investment manager of life sciences real estate in the U.S., Longfellow boasts 14M SF and $10B in asset value. Wright’s hiring means the firm “is set to expand internationally,” the firm said in a press release.
BioMed Realty Trust has also been aggressively expanding in the UK, announcing in late September that it had acquired the 15-acre Cambridge International Tech Park and 27-acre Granata Park, also in Cambridge, for roughly $1.2B, a move that would nearly double its existing 870K SF UK portfolio. Earlier this year, the UK government announced the creation of a $1.38B public-private partnership to support life sciences.
