Longfellow Real Estate Partners Expands Its Life Sciences Reach To The UK And Beyond

A rendering of the CamLIFE lab space in Cambridge, UK. 

In May, the UK government announced an $800M package to boost the life sciences sector. The plan includes a $190M endowment in the UK Biobank for a new research facility and investments in clinical trials, pharmaceutical manufacturing technology and workforce development. 

This move highlights the UK’s growing commitment to life sciences and the government’s plan to continue to encourage innovative research and development. As more life sciences companies are drawn to and grow in the UK, they will need more high-quality lab space to support their goals. This is where the expertise of Longfellow Real Estate Partners comes in. 

“The UK has great universities and research institutions with lots of talent, and that's why we believe in it,” Longfellow CEO and co-founder Adam Sichol said. “They have great scientists, but they need labs to accomplish their work, and they need experts to build those labs. And that's where Longfellow comes in. A pilot can't fly if they do not have a reliable aircraft. In this case, scientists cannot innovate without properly built and operated lab space. We are experts at building labs that fit the requirements of modern science and the people that work within them.”

The company launched its UK platform in 2021 and has been rapidly expanding its presence in the region. Bisnow sat down with Sichol and Longfellow UK Managing Director Alex Wright to learn more about the company’s plans for the UK life sciences market. 

Bisnow: What inspired Longfellow to expand into the UK?

Sichol: A few years ago, we were approached by some of our investors who were wondering whether we would consider expanding internationally and specifically to the UK. As we studied the market, we saw similarities between the U.S. and UK. 

There is a lot of great science coming out of the UK, which is no surprise considering it is home to some of the best universities in the world. This led Longfellow to take a UK strategy that is very similar to one that we've successfully deployed in the U.S., focused on fostering partnerships with great universities and building lab space for both newer companies and those that are well established to enable science to continue to develop and grow in new markets.

Bisnow: How has the expansion been going so far? Are there any key hires or property acquisitions you can discuss? 

Sichol: It’s been going great. We spent a lot of time finding the right person to lead our UK team, and we were really pleased to find Alex as our managing director. 

Wright: A lot of the lessons Longfellow learned while expanding into different parts of the U.S. are applicable to this first international expansion. For example, the ability to deliver the deep life sciences expertise and experience built up within Longfellow to a still-emerging science real estate market over here and combine this with high-quality, smart and driven people on the ground that bring, amongst other things, local relationships and market knowledge. 

Today, our team in the UK is seven people, and we've made a big effort across the organization to work hand in hand with our U.S. team to deliver the Longfellow platform to the UK. We’ve hired across our key verticals — development, investment, asset management, finance and operations — to ensure that we've got the right skills on the ground to complement Longfellow’s core capabilities. 

In the summer of 2022, we acquired a campus in Cambridge, which is one of the key science and innovation locations within the UK. We are so excited about this one, as it combines many of the elements that the team have successfully executed on in the U.S. numerous times: a blend of fantastic location, high-quality lab conversions, campuswide improvements, introduction of a people-first mentality and the amenities/services for our customers and the neighborhood that come with that, and, over time, the potential for the addition of new, sustainably developed lab spaces to further enhance the scale and breadth of the ecosystem. We’re on-site now and will be delivering the first fitted lab buildings, up to 170K SF, at what we’re calling CamLIFE from H2 2024 onwards. 

Bisnow: What trends are you seeing in the UK that you are particularly excited about? 

Wright: We have strong conviction in the multidecade thematic trends that are creating strong, long-term tailwinds for the life sciences sector: ageing demographics, increasing healthcare spending and rapid progress at the intersection of new technology and scientific research, fundamentally changing the research and development process for the better.

The UK government has identified the life sciences sector as a key industry to drive our growth and dedicated policy and funding support towards fostering a scientific superpower. This makes it an attractive environment for companies wanting to either start up, scale or move into this market to create and innovate. We’re here to help them meet their goals. 

Bisnow: What are your plans for the future of Longfellow in the UK? How does the firm hope to contribute to the country’s changing life sciences landscape? 

Sichol: We’re going to continue to focus on the best projects in the best markets and being good stakeholders in the communities where we’re involved. Life sciences development is not only about delivering labs but also creating spaces that make sense for communities and will benefit them over time. 

We understand and help enhance ecosystems for the entire scientific community. For example, we work with very small startups, and as they grow their business, they know that Longfellow can help them grow to that next stage and give them the additional 10K, 25K or 50K SF they need and beyond. We also provide spaces for large biotech and pharmaceutical firms as well as partnering with leading universities and research institutes, as we’ve done in the U.S. with the likes of Duke, UPenn and others.  

We’re building out a large portfolio over time, which means that when an occupier comes to us for a space, they not only have access to their lab in Cambridge, but they also have access to an international portfolio of over 16M SF and our extensive customer network spanning innovation hubs in Boston/Cambridge, U.S., New York City, Philadelphia, Maryland, North Carolina’s Research Triangle, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area. 

It’s not just about one space. We help life sciences companies make connections and scale across the globe. 

The exterior of Avia Labs in Millbrae, California, which broke ground in March 2023.

At the 21st UN Climate Change Conference in 2015, 175 countries and the European Union signed the Paris Agreement, which called for countries to take measures to lessen the impact of global warming. This move was not only inspirational for global leaders but also for Longfellow Real Estate Partners.

“The Paris Agreement started the call to action,” Longfellow Associate Director of ESG Lauren Ballou said. “Then, at the COP26 conference in 2021, leading financial institutions, banks, pension funds and insurers made a commitment to use their funds towards reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. This sparked the formation of our ESG task force.” 

Today, Longfellow is spearheading several major development projects that prioritize sustainable features to lessen their impact on the environment, as well as health and wellness programming to benefit tenants. Bisnow spoke with Ballou and Longfellow CEO and co-founder Adam Sichol to learn more about Longfellow’s environmental, social and corporate governance initiatives, the projects the company is working on and its plans for the future. 

Bisnow: Why are sustainable building practices important to Longfellow? 

Sichol: We have been focused on sustainable building efforts since the beginning of our firm. We have been committed to achieving LEED certification throughout the 14 years we’ve been doing business. Not only do we believe that it's the right thing to do, but it's also important to our employees, tenants and investors within our assets, all of whom want to know that we're approaching developments responsibly. We're committed to the environment and to the communities where we work.

Bisnow: Can you describe some of the recent sustainable building projects the company has built and detail their sustainable features?

Ballou: In early 2022, we formalized a sustainability and resilience design guideline document that sets baseline goals for our developments. Our current goals are to achieve both LEED and Fitwel certifications for all our projects to address both sustainability and health and wellness. You can see that in action at two projects: Bioterra, a future life sciences hub in San Diego, and Avia Labs at Millbrae Station in Millbrae, California. We broke ground on both of those in the last year or so, and they are both pursuing all-electric design, so we are very proud to be a part of some of the first all-electric labs in California. 

Avia’s facility is also very close to public transit, so it has a sustainable transit element to it as well, and we are also planning to implement on-site solar.

Bisnow: How does embracing sustainability benefit tenants, owners and the environment?

Ballou: Sustainability is important to both our tenants and our investors, and the bottom line is what’s good for our communities is good for us. We are long-term investors in our projects, so we want to do the right thing for the areas we build in. We've implemented in-house green teams to focus on being sustainable in our offices, and in fact, we recently did a beach cleanup in the Bay Area, and I think the team really liked getting out there and were surprised at just how much trash they found on a beach in one day. 

We also care about social sustainability. Elevate, our tenant experience platform, is hospitality-minded, and health and wellness programming is a huge part of that. People want to be in a place that supports their health and wellness and has great programming, and this is why tenants want to be on our campuses. We try to incorporate environmental sustainability in our Elevate programming as well. This past Earth Day, we did a planting event that folks really loved. I think the fact that we embrace sustainability not only benefits our tenants but also makes Longfellow a great place to work and helps our community too.

Bisnow: What are Longfellow’s sustainability goals?

Ballou: Our ESG task force is composed of directors from across all of our disciplines so that we can really drive ESG into what we do day to day. Most recently, we finished our first official ESG materiality assessment to help us prioritize our direction going forward. Soon, we will be taking a closer look at our targets, our key performance indicators and our action plan. Some of our priorities include energy, greenhouse gas emissions reduction, resilience to physical climate change, and tenant engagement, health and well-being, which are also very important to us on the social side.

Sichol: This summer was the hottest on record in history, and climate changes are having significant negative impacts on everything across our globe. We’re focused on doing our part to lessen that impact as a company whose focus is not only on real estate but life sciences real estate, in particular, in combination with being responsible global and community citizens. Our projects focus on creating research and science spaces to help improve the human condition and the world around us while also building, maintaining and operating real estate in a sustainable and socially responsible manner.

The exterior of Bioterra in San Diego, which broke ground in August 2022.

While the demand for life sciences spaces has cooled somewhat from the boom it experienced in 2020 and 2021, it is still well above pre-pandemic levels, and numbers suggest that demand will hold strong. 

Life sciences employment reached a record high at the start of 2023, and CBRE has predicted total life sciences lab and research and development space may increase by more than 20% over the next two years. 

These facilities come with their own unique needs and set of challenges. It takes a skilled developer to meet these requirements. The team at Longfellow has more than two decades of experience in bringing these projects to life and is looking forward to expanding its life sciences operation into new innovation hubs across the United States and in the UK as well. 

Bisnow sat down with Jessica Brock, partner of real estate operations at Longfellow, and Jill Ratke, partner of asset services, to learn more about what it takes to build a successful, flexible life sciences facility and Longfellow’s plans for the future. 

Bisnow: What sets life sciences construction apart from other types of CRE construction? What are some of its unique challenges? 

Ratke: At the highest level, the main challenges are the cost of life sciences real estate and the complications of the build-out. These facilities are more robust than other forms of CRE. You have higher ceilings, increased floor loads, more complicated infrastructure needs and a wide variety of tenants who have their own requirements, which requires greater flexibility. It takes experience to know what type of flexibility needs to be built into a space. You want to put enough capital into it, but you don't want to overspend. 

In terms of infrastructure, there’s a need for increased loading compared to a standard office building, and you have more robust mechanical, electrical and plumbing needs. There is also often a mix of natural and lab gas serving these spaces that you need to build into the exhaust systems, and then there are a lot of specialized lab systems from autoclaves to glass washers, vacuums, compressed air, redundant power supplies and more. And, of course, chemicals are a major consideration. Without the proper experience and planning, it can be dangerous, and you need to be really thoughtful of how you're storing chemicals within the building and how those chemicals are being transported.

Bisnow: What can go wrong when inexperienced developers take on these projects? 

Ratke: In short, a lot can go wrong. I’ve heard new entrants into this sector make comments about how the leases are triple-net leases, and therefore the tenants take care of everything, but I don't think there's anything further from the truth. It's really intensive from an operation standpoint, and if the landlord is inexperienced and not properly operating and maintaining the building, the tenant experience is going to suffer. 

Oftentimes, new entrants into the market are underinvesting in the buildings because they want the ability to pivot back to an office use if the life sciences strategy doesn't pan out. They're not going all-in and putting all the infrastructure that is needed for a proper life sciences building. If you don’t have the proper investment in the space or you're not thoughtful about the flexibility you’re building into it, it can compromise the investment and tank the return. 

Bisnow: How extensive is Longfellow's life sciences construction experience? 

Brock: The Longfellow leadership has been developing and operating lab space for over 20 years and has played active roles in major life science clusters, including turning Kendall Square in Massachusetts into the global life sciences hub that it is today. We have over 30 people across the country that focus specifically on life sciences design and construction, and we have them spread at our major hubs where we have projects, including in Boston, Philadelphia, New York, North Carolina, suburban Washington, D.C./Maryland, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area and London.

As Jill said, there are so many different types of lab spaces and needs that it’s important to have a team that understands that and has a wide range of expertise. We serve all different types of tenants, whether they're startups, midstage companies or institutions. Working with a company like Longfellow that has that depth of construction experience across the country and in the UK is the key to success. 

Bisnow: What approach does Longfellow take to life sciences construction, and what sets it apart from other firms? 

Brock: Our extensive experience enables us to create best-in-class lab products, and we also have the scale that can serve different tenants across our portfolio. We have been delivering projects like this for decades, and clients know that we are operators that they can trust who understand their industry. We always say, ‘We worry about the space, you worry about the science,’ which is very important to them. 

For us, the experience doesn’t stop when construction finishes. We work with customers long-term through our Elevate program, which is our proprietary curated customer experience brand. It’s not just about getting tenants into the building. It’s about taking care of them once they are there and providing a best-in-class experience that backs up our best-in-class space.

Bisnow: What life sciences projects does Longfellow have in the pipeline at the moment, and what are their unique features? 

Ratke: One project that we're just about to wrap up construction on is Hatch Life Sciences in Long Island City in New York. This is a 240K SF, seven-floor lab conversion project. We’ve built in the amenity program Jessica mentioned, Elevate. It has a fantastic rooftop space with panoramic views of the city, and it is transit-oriented, being located right along the subway. This is our first acquisition in New York, so we're really excited to get that delivered and help support the emerging life science submarket of Long Island City/Queens.

Brock: Another key project to highlight is Avia Labs in Millbrae, California, which is a ground-up development just three minutes from the San Francisco International Airport. It will be 315K SF, and one of the things that makes this project unique is its highly desirable location. It is directly adjacent to the BART station, and around that there are also other office buildings, retail, a hotel and more. It’s very exciting to put a ground-up lab building in the middle of an urban environment. This project is also highly focused on energy efficiency and tenant wellness, which is why we have achieved LEED Gold certification and Fitwel certification. 

These two projects really highlight the different skills we have as a company and our ability to suit multiple life science needs. We are looking forward to expanding this support for the industry in the future.