Image courtesy of Ryan Cos. US
A large development proposal in Branford could bring a huge volume of life science space to market, but its developer said the project won’t break ground without an anchor tenant.
HealthTech Park is being developed by a joint venture of Minnesota-based Ryan Cos. US and landowners Belfonti Cos. and A. Secondino & Son Inc. Connecticut-based Henrich Partners is a project consultant. The development team announced its plans for the project, which could deliver up to 500,000 square feet of space for life science, medical office or medical device tenants, on Thursday.
In an interview with The Commercial Record, Ryan Cos. Vice President of National Healthcare Development Ryan Lewis said that while the multi-phase project will only proceed one step at a time, even if at full build-out, it will rival New Haven’s largest lab project to date in size.
“Phase 1 and 2 are most critical, they’re right on [Interstate] 95. Two, 100,000-square-foot buildings with the ability to push maybe 150,000 square feet each. There will likely be speculative development on this property but we won’t go spec on a whole building,” he said.
Ryan has had preliminary conversations with potential tenants, but does not yet have any commitments, Lewis said. Any development approval filings will wait until the company has tenants in hand, he added.
Branford First Selectman James Cosgrove confirmed that, while the project site at 779-803 East Main St. and 21 Sycamore Way is zoned for industrial uses, a creek running through both properties means the project will need an inland wetlands permit. Cosgrove said that he was excited by the project’s potential to expand Branford’s existing stock of biotech-focused real estate, which is largely located in an industrial park next to the HealthTech site.
“Over the years, we’ve really been at capacity and I think this project will bring many benefits to growing that industry within this region and certainly achieving a critical mass we need to retain and attract talent and investment in the area,” he said.
That stuffed-to-capacity nature of Branford’s life science space is what drew Ryan Cos. to the project in the first place, Lewis said. While the town has historically served as a place for biotech companies spinning off of Yale University and Yale New Haven Medical Center to expand in lower-cost surroundings, thanks to New Haven’s relative lack of lab space in recent years, “you have a lot of life science users located in buildings built primarily in the 1980s.”
“These second-generation-of-financing companies, they’re having to modify their needs to suit the properties that are on the market. They may not have the ceiling heights or other things to do what they want,” he said, and that could create a ready batch of tenants for the HealthTech development.
Lewis said Ryan, whose architecture and engineering division will be designing the project, intends to leverage the on-site woods and wetlands to create a “park”-like atmosphere with “islands of biotechnology or medical buildings in a forest” as an amenity to lure tenants whose alternatives are busy downtown New Haven or Branford’s industrial park.
To finance the project, Lewis said, Ryan could turn to its own equity, but it might also finance part of the project with bank debt, either from a Connecticut lender or a national lender.
