GI Partners Buys Port of Technology Building in Philadelphia

 By Mark Heschmeyer CoStar News

GI Partners’ recently launched technology and science real estate fund has stepped up acquisitions in the past few weeks, picking up about $235 million in properties.

The firm’s most recent buy, in Philadelphia, is the San Francisco-based private investment firm’s first outside of the U.S. tech capital of Silicon Valley and the Bay Area in California. The deal shows the nationwide lure of investing in lab office space for tenants in the growing life science industry.

GI Partners acquired 3701 Market St., a 140,913-square-foot lab and research-and-development facility. The company paid $79 million for what’s been dubbed the Port of Technology Building.

The fund said it seeks to acquire data center properties, life sciences assets, and “always on” R&D facilities within the office and industrial sectors.

These types of properties “support essential functions of the 24/7 modern economy,” John Sheputis, managing director of GI Partners and head of the fund, said in a statement. “Our goal is to maximize risk-adjusted returns for our investors by identifying untapped segments of the market where our experience provides a critical competitive advantage.”

“The life sciences sector, especially since the start of the pandemic, has come to be regarded by investors around the world as low risk and low volatility. Philadelphia’s life sciences market continues to mature and is generally regarded as the fourth-largest research cluster in the U.S. The market’s growth and increased profile is attracting ever more investment from both global and domestic capital investors.”

The fund’s other purchases this year include the following:

• Mount Eden Research Park, 369,986 square feet in Hayward, California: A six-building life science campus in the Bay Area for $155 million in June.
• The Point, 89,145 square feet in Redwood City, California: Two life sciences buildings near the Bay Area life science submarket for $30.1 million in May.
• The Walsh-Bowers assemblage, 207,534 square feet in Santa Clara, California: A portfolio of three buildings for $79 million in March.

www.omegare.com