Tishman Speyer, Bellco JV Buys Boulder Biotech Campus

38th Street in Boulder, Colo. Image courtesy of Newmark

A joint venture of Tishman Speyer and Bellco Capital has acquired a four-building asset in Boulder, Colo., with the intention of developing a 164,000-square-foot mixed-use space. The 9-acre campus, Boulder 38 by Breakthrough, will feature office, lab and flex space. The sales price was not disclosed.

The venture, Breakthrough Properties, funded the purchase through the Breakthrough Life Science Property Fund. In April, the fund raised $3 billion in capital and co-investments to scale life science companies.

Located at the intersection of 38^th Street and Arapahoe Avenue, the campus is in proximity to restaurants, retail and other technology and life science campuses. This includes the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building, a 400,000 square-foot research and teaching facility at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Boulder by Breakthrough is set to feature high-quality laboratories and infrastructure to facilitate healthy office environments. Breakthrough tries to acquire LEED Gold certification on all U.S. properties, limiting carbon emissions and increasing energy efficiency.

Market breakthroughs

This acquisition marks the fourth market debut by Breakthrough this year. The company entered the Philadelphia market in May, announcing plans to transform 2300 Market St. into a life science campus. Breakthrough has also purchased assets in San Diego and Boston. In all, Breakthrough has some 4.6 million square feet of projects in the pipeline across the U.S. and Europe.

The University of Colorado Boulder houses National Academy of Science members, a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” winner and several distinguished professors in their bioscience research system. Outside the university, the Boulder community features a regional bioscience hub with more than 1 million square feet of active life science requirements over the last year and a half, according to a CBRE market report.

Nationally, life science lab vacancy is at a record low, with Boulder leading the pack. According to The Colorado Sun, Boulder’s vacancy was zero in the first quarter.