Taconic, Nuveen land $600M recapitalization for life sciences hub

$393M construction loan part of capital stack

A rendering of 125 West End Avenue, Nuveen Real Estate managing director Nadir Settles and Taconic co-CEOs Charlie Bendit and Paul Pariser (Photos via Taconic, Nuveen)
A rendering of 125 West End Avenue, Nuveen Real Estate managing director Nadir Settles and Taconic co-CEOs Charlie Bendit and Paul Pariser (Photos via Taconic, Nuveen)

A major life sciences hub on the Upper West Side has completed a $600 million recapitalization.

Taconic Partners, in partnership with Nuveen Real Estate, has been at work to transform an office building at 125 West End Avenue, and recently secured $393 million in construction financing from Apollo Global Management and Oaktree Management, the Commercial Observer reported. In addition, as part of a $600 million capitalization, LaSalle Investment Management has joined the project as an $207 million equity partner.

A former Chrysler Corporation facility, the 400,000-square-foot property is located near the north end of the now-shrinking Automobile Row on the Far West Side of Manhattan. Until January, the eight-story building was occupied by Walt Disney/ABC. In 2018, the media giant sold its sprawling Upper West Side campus to Silverstein Properties for $1 billion, and Silverstein then sold three buildings in the portfolio, including 125 West End Avenue, to Taconic and Nuveen.

“The transformation of 125 West End Avenue into a state-of-the-art, life-science hub and our recapitalization of this project is a testament to the resilience of New York City and the promise of this emergent sector,” said Chris Balestra, Taconic’s president and chief investment officer.

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JLL Capital Markets’ Evan Pariser and Geoff Goldstein arranged the construction loan. CBRE’s William Shanahan, Darcy Stacom and Steven Purpura negotiated LaSalle’s equity investment.

The life science sector has been a bright spot in the city’s office market in the pandemic. But because science and medical labs require special settings such as powerful electrical systems and enhanced ventilation, the lack of enough supply in the city caused life-science startups incubated in New York City to look for permanent locations in places such as Boston, experts have said.

“As Taconic and Nuveen set out to address the lack of supply of lab space in the market, we do so with confidence in our team and in the strength and resiliency of New York City,” Nadir Settles, Nuveen’s managing director, said in a statement. [CO] — Akiko Matsuda