Crescent, Nuveen Expand $500M Research Triangle Campus

February 10, 2022

Development In Focus Medical Office NewsMoreSoutheast

As much as 2 million square feet of life science-related space is planned.

The Yield, newly expanded by Crescent Communities and Nuveen in North Carolina’s Research Triangle. Image courtesy of Crescent Communities.

Crescent Communities, in partnership with Nuveen Real Estate, has acquired 120 acres in Holly Springs, N.C., part of the state’s Research Triangle. The deal greatly expands The Yield, Crescent’s $500 million, in-progress life science campus, the company said Wednesday.

The addition of 120 acres to the 25 acres in the project’s first phase will let Crescent develop as much as 2 million square feet of biomanufacturing, lab and office space at the campus. The Yield is intended to provide options for small, mid-size and large biotech companies to create spaces tailored to their needs.

Phase 1 is currently under construction and includes two 105,000-square-foot speculative biomanufacturing-ready buildings, a Crescent spokesperson told Commercial Property Executive. Crescent plans to begin construction on phase 2 of The Yield in the second half of the year.

Holly Springs is already home to such major life science companies as Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, the world’s largest monoclonal antibodies facility; Seqirus, the world’s largest influenza vaccine producer; and Amgen, a leader in biologic medicines.

Building evolution

This past December, Related Fund Management acquired The Stitch, a 25-acre, 245,159-square-foot life science campus in Morrisville, N.C., that has the distinction of having been built as an outlet mall in 1981. Seller Equator Capital Management, along with OCS Capital, had purchased and repurposed the property, completing the transition in 2020.

The Raleigh/Durham area comprises one of the world’s largest life science clusters, with more than 600 companies employing more than 38,000 people, according to a 2021 report from Cushman & Wakefield.

The market comprises 10.4 million square feet of lab space, with an overall vacancy rate of 15.4 percent. Cushman & Wakefield noted that although the sector has traditionally been suburb-focused, more recently downtown Durham has seen pockets of lab space grow up, “fueled by the demand of Duke University.”