Brookfield Asset Management is expanding its life sciences lending portfolio with a $278 million financing package for the construction of a new facility in Boston’s Somerville submarket.
The Toronto-based alternative manager this week announced that it would be backing the development of Boynton Gateway with the floating-rate loan, which was arranged by JLL. The sponsors for the nine-story, 334,000-square-foot life sciences facility includes a joint venture between CV Properties, Cannon Hill Capital Partners and L&B Realty Advisors.
JLL managing director Anthony Cutone and senior director Henry Schaffer worked on the deal as part of the Chicago-based firm’s capital markets investment advisory team.
“Somerville is fast becoming one of Greater Boston’s most significant new life sciences clusters,” Cutone said. “Boynton Gateway has the benefit of sitting between two neighborhoods earmarked by the city of Somerville for commercial and life sciences density.”
The project is set for completion in Q3 2024 and will feature office, research and development and lab spaces as well as accessory tenant retail and newly landscaped public realm improvements according to JLL.
The asset will sit within Somerville’s Boynton Yards Overlay District, which currently is home to the development of nearly 1 million square feet of additional lab space through a nearby project in the Overly District.
Earlier this year in a June report, CBRE Investment Management identified Boston as one of the beacons for future life sciences investment and growth alongside central hubs such as San Diego, California and the Research Triangle in North Carolina.
This transaction marked another notch for JLL in growing the Somerville life science market specifically. In mid-August, the firm arranged a $230 million construction loan supplied by Oxford Properties Group for the development of a life sciences building close by to Kendall Square. Schaffer was also featured on the JLL team behind the August deal alongside managing director Brett Paulsrud and associate Mike Shepard.