Joint real-estate venture Breakthrough Properties has completed a $3 billion fundraiser in order to establish campuses for life sciences companies that will join the fund’s broad globe-spanning portfolio. The fundraiser far exceeded its $1.5b. target to become the largest ever real estate fund in the life sciences sector (excluding recapitalizations of existing portfolios), according to real estate companies CBRE and JLL.
Breakthrough, a venture between real estate mogul Tishman Speyer and Bellco Capital, specializes in developing and acquiring dedicated compounds suited to companies within the life sciences ecosystem, including biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical technology, genetics and medical equipment. The funds are to be used to finance various existing projects, as well as to promote new projects throughout the United States and Europe.
“We established the fund with the aim of creating and operating cutting-edge environments where life science entrepreneurs and researchers can optimize their quest for life-saving treatments,” said Breakthrough co-founder and CEO Dan Belldegrun.
“The last two years have proven that the rapidly growing field of life sciences is the correct investment, not only financially, but also in terms of public health around the world,” he said. “We will continue to create environments that enable biotechnology innovators to develop by offering services to support their long-term business needs.”
Breakthrough boasts a host of projects that are being utilized by top life science organizations, such as Boston’s “105 by Breakthrough,” which is leased to CRISPR Therapeutics; an office-to-lab conversion project in San Diego leased to a variety of innovative companies including Tandem Diabetes Care, Janux Therapeutics and Protego Biopharma, Inc; and “Torrey View by Breakthrough,” a 515,00-square-foot project consisting of a 10-acre research and development campus pre-leased to the biosciences arm of multibillion-dollar medical technology company BD.
The fund was raised in part from Israeli insurance and financial giants Amitim, Clal Insurance and Finance, and Harel Insurance and Finance, the latter of which executed its first transaction by jointly investing with the fund in a large-scale development project of $500 million. The project will consist of mixed-use properties on Harvard University grounds in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The first stage of the project will consist of two lab structures, a rental residential building and a hotel.
Said Belldegrun, “We look forward to putting these resources to work in support of the next generation of critical discoveries.”