Harrison Street, an alternative real asset investment firms dedicated to the Education, Healthcare and Storage sectors, and Trinity Investment Management (Trinity), an operator, developer and manager of UK real estate focused in the life sciences and innovation space, are to acquire a portfolio of five life sciences and innovation properties across the UK.
As part of this acquisition, Harrison Street and Trinity have formed a strategic joint venture partnership to invest in the life sciences sector throughout the UK and Europe.
The portfolio consists of a combined total of approximately 1.6 million square feet of lab and office space located across the UK with assets in Kent, Colworth, Manchester, Newcastle and Edinburgh. Four of the five properties in the portfolio are multi-building campuses and each property offers attractive amenities, including cafes, nurseries, gyms, communal workspaces and presentation spaces. Anchor tenants across the portfolio include GW Pharma and Unilever. The portfolio allows for embedded upside through refurbishment and lease-up strategies, as well as the expansion of some of the campuses.
This is the largest private life sciences portfolio in the UK and enables Harrison Street to enter the sector with an income-producing portfolio at scale and to establish a major presence in the life sciences real estate market. Entry into the life sciences sector is a further expansion of Harrison Street’s European platform, which since its establishment in 2015 has invested EUR2.4 billion in the student accommodation and private rented sectors.
Additionally, Harrison Street and Trinity announced the launch of Knowledge Factory, a network of science parks tailored to the UK innovation sector that offer facilities ranging from small flexible laboratories to pharmaceutical grade manufacturing, among many other amenities.
Rob Mathias, Senior Managing Director and Head of International Business for Harrison Street, says; “Despite being the second most advanced life sciences and innovation market in the world, the real estate market in the UK is vastly undeveloped. However, the sector exhibits strong fundamentals such as a highly educated talent pool, rapid growth and substantial public and private investment. Harrison Street has significant experience investing in and developing life science assets and we look forward to entering the UK life sciences market at scale and bringing the expertise we have developed in the US to bear. We are delighted to partner with Trinity, a world-class developer and operator of UK life sciences and innovation assets and are looking forward to partnering with them on similar future projects across Europe.”
Richard O’Boyle, Executive Director at Trinity Investment Management, says; “The UK Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) sector makes a significant contribution to the UK economy but remains a nascent sector with its own bespoke opportunities and challenges. Our response to these opportunities and challenges is called Knowledge Factory which seeks to build knowledge economies applying our three strategic aims. We are privileged to partner with Harrison Street who bring significant sector experience and investment to Knowledge Factory as we seek to expand the platform in the UK and Europe.”