Developer Ancora selected New Haven for its first Connecticut project as it prepares to invest $4 billion in life science and tech projects in partnership with a British insurer. A 9-story, 200,000-square-foot lab building is part of the initial phase of the Square 10 project at the former New Haven Coliseum property. Image courtesy of Pelli Clarke & Partners and Jacobs
Flush with funding for expansion into new geographic markets, North Carolina life science developer Ancora looked to New Haven as a natural growth opportunity.
It found a willing partner in Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, the Norwalk-based firm that’s revived the long-anticipated redevelopment of the former New Haven Coliseum property.
“New Haven made a lot of sense for us, the more we looked at what Yale University was doing with the success of its life sciences, intellectual property and early-stage [company] formation,” said Ursula Powidzki, a senior vice president at Ancora.
In a May 2021 deal, British insurer Legal & General formed a partnership with Ancora to invest $500 million in life science and technology real estate projects. The two groups are targeting $4 billion in investment through 2026.
Even before the Legal & General deal, Durham-based Ancora was scouting potential sites in more than 20 cities, Powidszki said. Its investment strategy targets cities that have anchor institutions such as research universities, academic medical centers and government research centers, providing fertile ground for private life science development, Powidzki said.
Last fall, Rhode Island officials selected Ancora L&G to develop a 212,000-square-foot life science development on former Interstate 195 land, including space leased to Brown University and the state of Rhode Island for a public health lab.
Professional connections opened up a window of opportunity for Ancora in Connecticut.
Ancora Partners Founder and CEO Josh Parker was familiar with a Spinnaker multifamily project in downtown St. Louis, and Spinnaker was looking for an experienced life science developer to lead the lab portion of Square 10.
Spinnaker Real Estate Partners acquired the 3.5-acre former coliseum property at 275 South Orange St. in October. A previous developer, Live Work Learn Play of Montreal, failed to make progress on a mixed-use development.
Under Spinnaker, the first phase including 200 apartments is now under construction. Ancora Partners’ lab building, up to 100 housing units and a 650-space parking garage are scheduled to deliver in early 2025.
Ancora is nearing a designation of a commercial real estate brokerage to market 200,000 square feet of lab space in the 9-story tower, but hasn’t decided whether to pursue a speculative development, said Peter Calkins, Ancora’s vice president of development.
Higher Ed Connections Spawn Ecosystem
In recent years, New Haven has seen growth of incubator space, expansion by early-stage biotech firms and commitments by major life science companies seeking to lease space in the backyard of Yale University and its research centers.
In the last 15 months, Twining Properties’ Winchester Works development has signed leases with nearly 100,000 square feet of life science tenants including Artizan Biosciences, Halda Therapeutics and Quintum-Si Inc.
Winstanley Enterprises has leased its 500,000-square-foot 101 College St. lab tower, scheduled for completion late this year, to Yale University, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Arvinis and BioLabs, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based incubator.
BioLabs initially didn’t rank Connecticut as one of its preferred destinations for expansion, said Peter Denious, CEO of New Haven-based economic development nonprofit AdvanceCT. It reconsidered and settled on 101 College St. after AdvanceCT and state Department of Economic and Community Development spotlighted the region’s liveability and higher education cluster, Denious said.
“BioLabs manages these [incubator] facilities, and that is so important for the startup ecosystem that we have those facilities available,” he said.
Winstanley’s 513,000-square-foot 100 College St. development is leased to Alexion and Yale’s Wu Tsai Institute.
And BioMed X, a research center at the University of Heidelberg, announced in January it’s in negotiations to lease a property near Yale School of Medicine for six researchers.
Ancora executives expect that demand for the Square 10 labs will include startups receiving venture capital funding that enables them to graduate out of local incubators such as New Haven Innovation Labs, which opened in mid-2021. The incubator, run by the nonprofit John B. Pierce Laboratory, includes five labs and eight offices available for short- and long-term leases.
Longer term, Ancora sees potential for projects near the University of Connecticut’s Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine in Farmington.
“We are focused on the institutions where we can bring value and collaboration,” Calkins said.
