Real estate services giant Savills is acquiring T3 Advisors, a specialist in life sciences tenant representation, in an effort to expand Savills' expertise in that fast-growing sector.

Founded in 2001 with offices in Boston, New York, San Francisco and Palo Alto, California, T3 will rebrand as T3 Advisors, A Savills Company. T3 founder and CEO Roy Hirshland will become a vice chairman at Savills and continue to lead T3 Advisors. The buyer didn't disclose a price.

"The acquisition of T3 will further amplify the life science and technology industry advisory services that Savills can provide to clients on a global basis," Savills Group CEO Mark Ridley said in a statement. "These are key growth sectors for us and are integral to our continued strategic expansion across North America."

Though already in a growth mode, life sciences got a boost from the coronavirus pandemic, and the demand for space in life sciences hubs is still expanding, pushed by investment in the sector from private venture capital as well as federal sources like the National Institutes of Health.

Development in the sector is also brisk nationwide. San Diego State University is developing the 80-acre Mission Valley complex, which will include life sciences facilities. In Houston, the 37-acre TMC3 project will seek to gestate ideas from the Texas Medical Center into full-fledged companies. In Pittsburgh, a 1915-vintage Ford Motor plant is being reborn as The Assembly, a $330M biomedical research hub anchored by the University of Pittsburgh.

Boston, San Francisco and San Diego remain the top U.S. clusters for life sciences, according to JLL, but other markets are emerging quickly, such as Charlotte, Seattle, Denver and Austin.

In New York, which is also a rising life sciences hub, CBRE reports that life sciences leasing has totaled 257.4K SF so far this year, up from 155.9K SF in all of 2020 and 72.4K SF in 2019.