D2 Capital Advisors Tapped by Breakthrough Properties for Life Sciences Financing
Tishman Speyer venture proposes new life sciences building at 2300 Market St. in Center City
By Natalie Kostelni – Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal
A venture between Tishman Speyer, a New York real estate firm, and Bellco Capital, a Los Angeles investor in life sciences companies, has acquired 2300 Market St. in Center City and plans to develop it into 200,000 square feet of life sciences space.
The partnership, Breakthrough Properties, bought three structures that housed the culinary school for the Arts Institute of Philadelphia from an entity affiliated with Lubert-Adler. The project will serve as Breakthrough’s first life sciences development in Philadelphia though the company is planning more. Aside from Philadelphia, it has 4.6 million square feet of life sciences projects in the works in key markets including San Diego, Boston, Amsterdam and Cambridge, United Kingdom.
The venture closed at the end of April on raising $3 billion in direct capital and co-investments “to scale a global portfolio of best-in-class ecosystems for dynamic early-, mid-, and late-stage life science companies,” the firm said. The real estate fund is considered the largest solely targeting life sciences.
Tishman has a presence in the Philadelphia suburbs. It owns several office buildings in Bala Cynwyd, where it plans to undertake a multiyear, mixed-used development.
The building at 2300 Market has been in flux. At one point, the Lubert-Adler entity had planned a hotel and then later nine-story, 180,000-square-foot overbuild that would have had 200 apartments. The Breakthrough project will be eight stories and incorporate the façades of the existing three- and four-story buildings.
Its location on the western edges of the Central Business District is in proximity of University City, which is among the region’s biggest life sciences and innovation hubs. It is also across from 2222 Market St., which is a new headquarters under development for law firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius.
“Driven by a highly-educated workforce and an influx of funding flowing to its world-renowned academic research institutions, hospitals, biotech companies and innovative startups, Philadelphia has quickly established itself as a leader in the cell, gene, and mRNA therapy space, which is driving increasing demand for high quality lab space,” said Aaron Kazam of Breakthrough Properties, in a statement.
D2 Capital Advisors assisted Breakthrough with site selection and is its financing advisor for the project. Philadelphia architecture firm KieranTimberlake designed the building. Cushman & Wakefield will serve as leasing agent.