“Given the current public health crisis, we anticipate pharmaceutical and life sciences manufacturers to consider ‘reshoring’ and expanding operations in the U.S.,” said Joel Bergstein, president of LEG.
Lincoln Equities Group (LEG) and HIG Realty Partners bought a 1.2 million-square-foot life sciences campus that was previously owned by Bristol Myers Squibb. It is now being marketed as the Princeton West Innovation Campus and is seven miles from Princeton. The new campus is on 433 acres.
“Given the current public health crisis, we anticipate pharmaceutical and life sciences manufacturers to consider ‘reshoring’ and expanding operations in the U.S.,” said Joel Bergstein, president of LEG. “This spacious, modern BMS campus—located in the center of ‘Einstein’s Alley’ in Central New Jersey—is a prime location for continued innovation and expansion.”
The campus is along the Boston-Washington, DC life sciences corridor, home to numerous startups as well as Fortune 500 life sciences companies. PTC Therapeutics is a current tenant, taking up more than 200,000 square feet, including a biologics production site and R&D buildings.
The campus is also zoned for commercial manufacturing. Of it, 35 additional acres could be developed and expanded to about 2.8 million square feet.
The campus has nine principal buildings for state-of-the-art clinical manufacturing, plug-and-play biological laboratories and office space, as well as freestanding R&D support space, storage facilities, and a global data and command center.
There is a central utility complex (CUC), which offers wastewater management, generator-backed electricity, chilled water and steam. The companies note that there is a full-service cafeteria, an 8,000-square-foot fitness center and a freestanding, 280,000-square-foot child development center in addition to various conference areas, including a 9,000-square-foot mansion, which was the campus’s original building.
“This campus presents an opportunity to capitalize on the growing demand for pharmaceutical-grade lab space both locally and nationally,” said Ira Weidhorn, co-head of HIG Realty Partners. “We look forward to building around the strong in-place anchor tenancy of PTC and leveraging HIG’s real estate expertise and bio-health experience to enhance the execution of the value-add business plan.”
PTC Therapeutics typically focuses on developing therapies for rare diseases. As is common of most companies during the pandemic, they are studying one of their pipeline drugs as a possible treatment for COVID-19. On June 17, the company announced it had the go-ahead to begin a Phase II/III trial of PTC299, a dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH) inhibitor as a possible treatment for COVID-19. The oral drug has a dual-mechanism of action that may possibly address two COVID-19 components, the high viral replication and the uncontrolled inflammatory response.
DHODH is used to produce the RNA building blocks for the production of SARS-CoV-2. In cellular assays, the drug has shown potent inhibition of viral replication. Many RNA viruses use the same building blocks, which is why in lab tests PTC299 has demonstrated broad-spectrum antiviral activity. The drug is also being studied in an ongoing clinical trial for acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
LEG will manage the new campus via its Life Sciences division.
“Our Life Sciences division at LEG has grown to nearly 2 million square feet with the addition of the former BMS campus,” said Lance Bergstein, acquisitions and development officer at LEG. “New Jersey has one of the most highly educated and skilled workforces in the U.S., including the highest concentration of scientists and engineers in the world. Our Life Sciences team expects to see an influx of investment across the state.”
