Taconic Partners has parted with another building that was part of its multibillion-dollar effort to expand the New York City life sciences sector.
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Taconic sold the planned life sciences complex at 309 E. 94th St., dubbed Iron Horse Labs, for $73.1M, according to city property records.
The Upper East Side development would span 200K SF across eight stories but is unfinished, according to Crain’s New York Business, which first reported the sale.
The buyer was LCOR, which is best known as a residential developer and completed a mixed-use Coney Island development at 1515 Surf Ave.
Taconic and LCOR didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Taconic acquired the commercial building between First and Second avenues with partners Nuveen and Flatiron Equities for $70M in 2021.
The trio then obtained a $78.8M loan from Ares Commercial Real Estate to fund the expansion and construction of the lab and research facilities on the site.
The lab was scheduled to open this month, but the NYC Department of Buildings’ online portal doesn’t yet show a certificate of occupancy for the property, which means the building hasn’t been given permission to open its doors.
Iron Horse Labs doesn't yet have any tenants, Crain’s reported, citing CoStar data. Asking rents are reportedly $52 per SF.
The property was part of a portfolio held by Elevate Research Properties, Taconic’s life sciences real estate arm that launched in 2022 and spent roughly $2B acquiring and developing life sciences real estate.
The portfolio comprised three properties, according to Elevate’s website, and at one point spanned roughly 1.4M SF. The other two buildings, the Hudson Research Center and West End Labs, were on Manhattan’s West Side.
Taconic announced in late July that it was selling 125 West End Ave. to billionaire Bill Ackman for $260M, well below the $600M Taconic spent developing the 400K SF property. The Iron Horse Labs sale leaves the Hudson Research Center, a 320K SF lab facility at 619 W. 54th St. that has been in Taconic’s portfolio since 2012, as the only NYC property left in Elevate’s portfolio.
Between the acquisition and development costs, it is likely Taconic took a hit selling off Iron Horse Labs. But it isn’t the first NYC life sciences landlord this year to face a tough decision.
In August, Longfellow Real Estate Partners sold the Hatch Life Sciences Building at 43-10 23rd St. for $86.9M. It bought the 215K SF Long Island City property in 2021 for $92.5M and had also planned to invest around $120M converting the property from an industrial space into labs and offices.
NYC’s life sciences real estate market is struggling to attract tenants. It had a 37% availability rate at the end of the first quarter, the highest of any market in the country, according to JLL.
Asking rents, which are also higher than in any other market, have made the buildings less appealing than counterparts in primary markets like Boston and other secondary markets like Philadelphia, industry analysts told Bisnow this summer.
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