Alexandria Sells 2 Boston Office, Life Science Assets for $273M

421 Park Drive. Image courtesy of Alexandria Real Estate Equities

Alexandria Real Estate Equities has sold two office and life science assets totaling 778,000 square feet in the Boston area. Riverside Center, a 510,000-square-foot office campus in Newton, Mass., and a 268,000-square-foot portion of 421 Park Drive, a 660,034-square-foot life science development in Boston, traded for a combined $272.5 million.

Boston Children’s Hospital acquired part of the Boston project, coming online in the 2 million-square-foot Alexandria Center for Life Science – Fenway campus, for an initial $155 million. Additionally, the buyer will sponsor the construction of the facility with funds proportional to its 48.5 percent ownership stake. Alexandria will remain the asset’s operator and property manager.

In a separate transaction, a joint venture between Barings and Greatland Realty Partners acquired the three-building Riverside Center property in Newton. The partnership’s investment was $117.5 million, public records show, half the price Alexandria paid in 2020 for the Class A asset.

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The two deals came on the heels of several similar moves. Earlier this month, Alexandria, in a partnership with Nuveen, sold 70 percent interest in 9625 Towne Centre Drive, a 163,648-square-foot facility in San Diego that was purpose-built for Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.

In April, the REIT transferred a portion of its interest in an ongoing project at 15 Necco St. in Boston to Mori Trust Co. The deal was, at the time, the largest single-building transaction of its kind this year.

Inside Alexandria’s life science campus in Fenway

Already under construction, the 421 Park Drive project is expected to go vertical later this year, with completion expected in 2026. Upon delivery, the 13-story life science building will comprise more than a quarter of the space at the Alexandria Center for Life Science – Fenway campus, developed by the seller in partnership with Samuels & Associates.

Plans for Alexandria Center for Life Science – Fenway emerged in 2021, when Alexandria purchased the entire lot, which includes the historic Landmark Center, for $1.5 billion. The campus will be the developer’s latest life science component of its Greater Boston cluster that also includes Minuteman Park, a 1.3 million-square-foot property in Andover, Mass.

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At full build-out, Alexandria Center for Life Science – Fenway will encompass four buildings, including the Landmark Center and another 550,000-square-foot facility, totaling more than 2 million square feet of laboratory and office space. Amenities will include open courtyards, 50,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and direct connections to the MBTA Fenway station. The campus is situated in its namesake district, three blocks away from Fenway Park.

Riverside Center’s stats

Riverside Center. Image courtesy of CommercialEdge

Located at 275 Grove St., Riverside Center came online in 2000, according to CommercialEdge information. Alexandria picked up the property in 2020 for $235 million, with the intention of converting it entirely to life science office and laboratory space, as reported in Banker & Tradesman. Those plans were abandoned earlier this year, motivated in part by lagging office fundamentals, stagnating demand and rising construction costs, the company reported in an April earnings call.

Riverside Center sits on 11 acres, with its three buildings connected by a central atrium. The buildings’ tenants are in the financial services, health and technology sectors. Amenities include 6,000 square feet of retail space, alongside dining services curated by Kendall Kitchen, according to CommercialEdge information.

The property is directly adjacent to the Riverside MBTA station, and in between on-ramps to the interstates 90 and 95, 10 miles west of downtown Boston and within 8 miles of Cambridge, Mass. The campus is across the street from Lasell University and 2 miles south of Brandeis University.