Investment manager Harrison Street has teamed up with life sciences real estate operator Trinity Investment Management in a bid to scale-up the UK’s life sciences sector.
The joint venture has sealed a £120m deal to buy BioCity Group, creating a 2.6m sq ft portfolio of science parks spread across the UK.
The new company, We Are Pioneer Group, aims to create an accelerator to scale up the UK’s life sciences offer and will become the first nationwide business to combine education, investment and business support with the development and asset management of lab space.
We Are Pioneer Group said it would not only focus on offering purpose-built space, designed around different types of science and accommodating specialised, often costly, equipment, but also on supporting an ecosystem that can help its tenants raise investment, attract talent and maintain and expend their presence in the company’s science parks.
Paul Bashir, chief executive of Harrison Street’s European business, said: “The pandemic has put life sciences facilities on the global stage, yet the UK has a distinct supply-demand imbalance that is prohibiting this sector from truly flourishing. Creating the first nationwide, vertically-integrated platform gives us the scale and skills to make a real positive impact, working not just with exciting biotech firms but with the many academics and institutions that BioCity has developed relationships with over the years.
“Our track record in life sciences across North America has taught us many valuable lessons about the value of creating ecosystems and the premium investors can derive from carefully aligning operational asset management with investment.”
Richard O’Boyle, executive director at Trinity, added: “Life sciences is a truly unique part of the real estate universe that requires intensive management and requires considerable networks to connect and support our tenants. Building meaningful links to academics, researchers, governments and pharmaceutical firms is critical for their success – and ours. Through the acquisition of BioCity, the new company will not only invest in real estate, but support tech transfer and accelerator programmes, with a scaleable ecosystem linking key universities, public bodies and the NHS with VC investment and many global partners.”
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