Pasadena, California-based real estate investment trust (REIT),
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.
(
ARE
), recently inked a long-term lease agreement with National
Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Center for Advancing
Translational Sciences (NCATS) for 75,000 square feet. The lessee
would occupy space at Alexandria's Shady Grove Life Sciences Center
in Maryland. With the deal the facility is now 97% leased.
Shady Grove Life Sciences Center comprises of four buildings
spanning 281,000 square feet and is Maryland's debut research park
developed solely for serving biotechnology and health care
industries and other related institutions of higher education.
The park houses facilities such as healthcare, research and
educational centers, and R & D. The property boasts world class
biotech leaders including-
EntreMed Inc.
(
ENMD
), Johns Hopkins University, Institute for Bioscience and
Biotechnology Research (IBBR), Center for Advanced Research in
Biotechnology (CARB) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
NIH, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS), is the nation's medical research agency aimed at improving
health and saving lives. NIH is made up of 27 Institutes and
Centers, each having a particular research agenda. NCATS is an
initiative of NIH intended to improve the intensity of innovative
methods and technologies for patients. The new leased space is to
be used for the Division of Pre-Clinical Innovation at NCATS.
The new lease agreement has extended a long-term alliance between
NIH and Alexandria Real Estate. Prior to the agreement, the NIH
occupied a space spanning 60,000 square feet to house its NIH
Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC) at the campus. Post-transaction,
NIH owns approximately 135,000 square feet of space at the Shady
Grove Life Science Center.
As a point of reference, the board of Maryland-National Capital
Park and Planning Commission recently approved a preliminary plan
granting approximately 231,000 square feet of additional space in
Shady Grove Life Sciences Center. This brings the total developable
area in the facility to around 512,000 square feet. The area
extension provides an opportunity for Alexandria Real Estate to
undertake further life science developments.
Alexandria Real Estate primarily focuses on leasing properties
situated at key cluster submarkets to top-notch organizations
associated with the life science industry. In the recently
completed second-quarter 2012, the company recorded 44 leases for
space spanning around 959,000 square feet, the fourth highest
number of leasing activity registered since its inception.
Alexandria Real Estate, which competes with
BioMed Realty Trust Inc.
(
BMR
), currently has a Zacks #3 Rank, which translates into a
short-term Hold rating. We are also maintaining our long-term
Neutral recommendation on the stock.
ALEXANDRIA REAL (ARE): Free Stock Analysis
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BIOMED RLTY TR (BMR): Free Stock Analysis
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(ENMD): ETF Research Reports
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