After San Diego-based BioMed Realty sold its life science building in Bothell for over $18 million in December, it reallocated a portion of those proceeds to acquire a property in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood for $16.2 million from Denver company, Frontier Renewal.
The full city block property is situated between Roy St., Valley St., 8th Ave. N, and Dexter Ave. and is just up the street from the University of Washington’s medical center. UW has buildings at 750, 850 and 960 Republican St.
In December 2016, BioMed sold its Bothell life science building to Jump Holdings LLC, a Nevada-based company for $18.15 million or $268 per square foot. BioMed had originally acquired that building in 2006, for which they paid $10.5 million.
BioMed also opened Vue Research Center, one of the largest life science buildings in South Lake Union in March 2016. The 223,000-square-foot building is located at 500 Fairview Avenue and joined an existing adjoining building. Novo Nordisk and NanoString Technologies are current tenants of the building.
In a Seattle-Bellevue Life Sciences Outlook 2016 report from JLL, they describe the Puget Sound life science market as an industry “driven by small to mid-sized companies that are experiencing dynamic growth driven by significant innovation.” From a regional standpoint, the life science industry is the fifth largest industry in the state, with research and development companies comprising the majority of the industry. Life sciences is responsible for more than $12.5 billion of the state’s gross domestic product, according to the report. Well-known companies such as the Allen Institute for Brain Science, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Juno Therapeutics, PhaseRX call the Seattle area home.
One setback the report pointed out is that while new facilities in the Lake Union area pushed vacancy up to 2.6 percent over the last 12 months, that area is the most expensive submarket in the region, making rent costly for tenants.
