BioMed Realty (“Company”), a Blackstone portfolio company and Babraham Research Campus Ltd, (“BRC Ltd”) has completed the lease-up of a 34,000 square feet purpose-built, fully fitted wet laboratory building on the Babraham Research Campus ahead of scheduled completion, underlining the strength of the UK’s life sciences sector. The building represents the latest life science addition to the Babraham Research Campus and is a collaborative endeavour undertaken in a joint venture partnership with BRC Ltd, which is responsible for the development and management of the Campus on behalf of its shareholders; BBSRC-UKRI and the Babraham Institute. Due for completion in February 2024, this new building will see BioMed Realty’s footprint at the Campus in Cambridge grow to more than 130,000 square feet across three buildings.
This latest life science development is set to be a Class A cutting-edge building tailored to cater to the needs of emerging life science companies, a group often under-served by the UK real estate industry. As these entities evolve from their incubation phase, BioMed Realty’s and Babraham Research Campus’ newest UK life science building is poised to support their aspirations for growth and scaling. The building is being delivered in response to record tenant demand in Cambridge, where lab availability rates are near-zero.
Insmed Incorporated, a global biopharmaceutical company on a mission to transform the lives of patients with serious and rare diseases, has agreed to take ~17,000 square feet of space. While Xap Therapeutics, an emerging biotech company radically transforming drug delivery and developing precision therapeutics for diseases with high unmet need, has leased ~10,000 square feet.
Both tenants will move from existing facilities within Babraham Research Campus to the more expansive scale-up labs within the new building, maintaining their integral ties to the vibrant on-campus science and research ecosystem.
Mosaic Therapeutics, an oncology therapeutics company which recently closed a $28 million Series A funding round, has agreed to take the remaining ~6,800 square feet. The start-up is an alumnus of the 2021/22 cycle of Accelerate@Babraham of which BioMed Realty are one of the strategic partners, based at Babraham Research Campus.
The Accelerate@Babraham programme was founded with a vision to empower early-stage ventures, bringing together a network of industry experts, mentors and investors. This collective initiative aims to equip early career science entrepreneurs with the required skills, confidence, and strategic network connections, coupled with access to communal laboratories, to pave the way for the expansion of their business ideas.
“BioMed Realty’s latest lease announcements encapsulate the ethos of Babraham Research Campus – a location that continues to provide critically undersupplied research and development grow-on space for life science start-ups and scale-ups,” said Bill Kane, BioMed Realty President of East Coast and UK Markets. “By investing in the mission-critical facilities that will help nurture innovation, our joint venture with Babraham Research Campus Ltd will help provide the UK’s life sciences industry with a path for growth and allow the sector to continue competing globally.”
“Derek Jones and the Babraham Research Campus team were one of the first organisations in Britain to recognise the huge value of offering turnkey facilities to start-ups and scale-ups, thereby creating an ecosystem where enterprises want to stay and grow. This is evidenced by the fact that all three businesses taking space within this newest building had existing ties to the Campus.”
Derek Jones, CEO, Babraham Research Campus added: “Our dynamic and highly connected Campus ecosystem provides a supportive community for discovery research and an ideal environment within which to start, scale and grow a bioscience business. Shared knowledge, skills and access to scientific facilities not always readily available elsewhere has created an environment which truly supports, nurtures and facilitates job creation and the discovery of treatments and technologies today, which will have a real impact on the health of the population tomorrow.
“Our ongoing development of the Campus is designed to continually enhance our exceptional Campus ecosystem. This provides opportunities for ventures to start and scale with us, responding to requirements as they evolve with the right physical facilities, as well as access to our wider, hugely collaborative community, both on and off Campus. The fact that this latest development will shortly welcome two existing Campus occupiers and an Accelerate@Babraham graduate exemplifies the fact that Babraham Research Campus is truly able to provide life science ventures with a home for life. It has been a pleasure to once again partner with BioMed Realty to deliver this next important phase of Campus growth.”
Michael Jones, Head of Commercial Division at Cheffins, who advised BioMed Realty on the lettings says: “Cheffins advises BioMed Realty across all of its UK holdings and has let circa 500,000 sqft of Grade A lab space on its behalf to date. This is now the third building at Babraham Research Park which Biomed has developed, achieving record rent levels. The speed of take up for these buildings, significantly ahead of completion, goes to show the ongoing demand for prime life sciences real estate within the Cambridge Cluster. There are numerous companies actively searching for space within the local market and it is this level of demand, coupled with the lack of available buildings which is continuing to raise headline rents. Cambridge is consistently the go-to location for the life sciences and AI sectors, both of which show remarkable health and vitality, in spite of the challenges facing the rest of the UK economy.”
The building, which will incorporate fitted lab and office suites designed for multi-tenant flexibility, is being built by SDC and represents the third building the contractor has delivered at Babraham Research Campus in the last four years.
The development, which will be the most sustainable building on Campus to date, is targeting a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ score. The building will incorporate a number of sustainable technologies – such as on-site renewable solar energy and rainwater harvesting for landscape irrigation – to reduce operational carbon emissions and reduce water consumption at the building.
Babraham Research Campus facilitates a world-class research and business ecosystem that supports early-stage bioscience enterprise and is distinct in its co-location of bioscience companies with the world leading discovery research of the Babraham Institute. This dynamic environment - home to communal laboratory members, start-up and scale-up organisations employing 2,000 people and 300 academic researchers - is where discovery research and business come together with a shared scientific focus that accelerates innovation and strengthens links between academia and the commercial world.
For further information, contact Michael Jones on michael.jones@cheffins.co.uk