Ivanhoé Cambridge and Lendlease have partnered to develop lab, office and manufacturing spaces in life sciences clusters in the United States. The partners will make an initial equity investment of $500M but say that they might later add to the total.

The primary targeted life sciences clusters for the partners will include greater Boston, the Bay Area and metro San Diego, where the partners will pursue new developments as well as retrofits of existing properties. Other targeted markets will include metro New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Ivanhoé Cambridge will be the majority partner in the venture while Lendlease will lead development and oversee construction on the projects. Lendlease has completed more than 500 life sciences facilities nationwide totaling about 18M SF, including both new developments and conversions.

The partners' first life sciences development will be 60 Guest St. in Boston’s Allston/Brighton neighborhood. The 320K SF lab and office project will break ground later this spring, with a slated completion in 2024.

"This partnership will also allow Ivanhoé Cambridge to deepen its footprint in the life science sector, which has long-term growth fundamentals," Ivanhoé Cambridge Executive Vice President, Leasing and Development, North America Jonathan Pearce said in a statement.

The partners' investment plans generally follow growth in the booming life sciences sector, whose top markets include Boston, San Diego and the Bay Area.

Boston has been particularly hot recently. Leasing velocity in the Boston-area lab market totaled a record 2.4M SF in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to CBRE data, with the market enjoying 1.9M SF of positive net absorption during the quarter.

Boston and other active life sciences markets also include millions of square feet in office-to-lab conversions, a specialized kind of redevelopment kicked into higher gear since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.