UPDATE, Jan. 2, 2020, 12:35 p.m.: GFP Real Estate and King Street Properties scored financing to build their new life sciences complex in Long Island City.
The lender was Acore Capital, which provided the debt for InnoLabs at 45-18 Court Square, property records show. The $156 million deal includes mezzanine financing, according to a source familiar with the transaction.
The Carlyle Group also appears to be a partner on the development, which will stand six stories and measure about 267,000 square feet. GFP and King Street announced earlier this month that they broke ground on the project.
None of the parties — GFP, King Street, Carlyle or Acore — immediately responded to requests for comment.
A JLL team of Greg LaBine, Steven Klein, Geoff Goldstein and Alex Staikos arranged the financing.
GFP, run by the Gural family, partnered with Boston-based King Street, which is known for its life sciences developments, on the $240 million project. It appears to be King Street’s first in New York City.
GFP and King Street announced their development in late 2018, as Amazon had planned to build a new corporate campus in the Queens neighborhood. Even though the tech giant later reneged on its plans, the GFP group did not. And there are other real estate firms also hoping to capitalize on life science projects in and around the city.
Thor Equities in August said it was launching Thor Sciences to focus on the asset class. It kicked off the venture with the $152 million acquisition of a 48-acre New Jersey property.
New York City’s dedicated life sciences office and incubator space covers 1.6 million square feet, but that is expected to rise to 4.1 million square feet over the next five years, according to an August report from Newmark Knight Frank.
Along with GFP and King Street’s project, Long Island City is slated to get another life sciences development from Alexandria Real Estate Equities, which is converting the Bindery Building at 30-02 48th Avenue into a nearly 177,000-square-foot facility.
Clarification: This article was updated to included a higher total loan amount that includes mezzanine financing.