Oxford Properties Pays $125M for Boston-Area Life Science Asset

92 Crowley. Image courtesy of Oxford Properties Group

Oxford Properties Group has completed its $125 million acquisition of 92 Crowley Drive, a 120,000-square-foot life science and good manufacturing practice (GMP) facility under construction in Marlborough, Mass. Biomanufacturing and pharmaceuticals firm Resilience sold the asset in a sale-leaseback transaction and will continue to occupy it for up to 30 more years.

The deal marks the third transaction between Oxford and Resilience, the previous two having also been sale-leasebacks.

A larger GMP facility

The story of 92 Crowley began in 2015, when the development site was purchased by LFB USA from First Colony Development Co. for $2.6 million. In 2016, the buyer broke ground on a $37 million, 70,000-square-foot drug manufacturing facility on location and sold it back to First Colony in 2018. Resilience acquired the asset in 2022, beginning construction of an additional 35,000 square feet of space that is expected to come online later this year.

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Upon completion, as a designated GMP facility, the building will have dedicated spaces for manufacturing, product analysis and business operations. The facility will feature modular manufacturing equipment housed within dedicated production suites, in addition to office and warehouse space. Situated within 3 miles of central Marlborough, the property is 2 miles from interstates 290 and 495, providing quick access to much of metro Boston’s dense cluster of life science research, development and manufacturing facilities.

Oxford’s life science endeavors

The purchase of 92 Crowley brings Oxford’s North America portfolio of GMP assets to seven buildings spanning 1.4 million square feet, with an additional 1 million square feet in the pipeline. The firm’s Boston footprint amounts to 621,000 square feet across five properties. Executive Vice President Chad Remis said, in prepared remarks, that GMP facilities are unique, highly technical assets and represent a segment of the life sciences market in which Oxford has intentionally set out to become a market leader.

In recent months, Oxford has both made investments and planned out developments in several of the nation’s largest life science markets. In October 2022, the firm purchased Ionis Pharmaceuticals’ three-building, 250,000-square-foot San Diego-area base of operations for $158 million. On the development side, the firm announced a partnership with Ensemble/Mosaic that will see the creation of a 3 million-square-foot campus in Philadelphia’s Navy Yard that is expected to cost $1.5 billion.