US REIT BioMed Realty Trust today said it had entered into a definitive agreement to buy Granta Park in Cambridge from MEPC for £127m.
Estates Gazette revealed last month that BioMed was buying the 472,000 sq ft science and business park after bidding up to £15m higher than rivals Blackstone and Rockspring.
The 100-acre park to the south-east of Cambridge is fully let and has an annual rent roll of £10.6m with an average unexpired lease of 10 years. It has up to 7 acres of development land, which could house 140,000 sq ft of space.
San Diego-based BioMed owns $4.2bn (£2.7bn) of life science-related properties throughout the US but is virtually unknown in the Cambridge market.
Chairman and chief executive Alan Gold said: “We are extremely pleased and excited to announce our expansion of BioMed Realty’s best-in-class property portfolio with this investment in Cambridge, the premier life science cluster in the United Kingdom and arguably all of Europe.”
MEPC chief executive Rick de Blaby said: “Granta Park has been very important to MEPC over the last decade as a leading contributor to our financial performance and we are delighted that such a prestigious science park asset is passing on to a discerning investor.
“Our strategy is the continual development of our national portfolio of large mixed-use estates by means of recycling capital from the relatively stabilised and mature assets.”
MEPC was advised by Jones Lang LaSalle.
nick.whitten@estatesgzette.com
