Investor Bets On Biotech Boom

Why is a London-insurance-giant-backed real estate developer about to drop $220 million on constructing a new 11-story lab and office building atop a ​“10th Square” surface parking lot?

Two words: Yale. Bioscience.

Josh Parker offered that answer — albeit in a longer and more detailed way — in a recent interview with the Independent about his company’s plans for, and interest in, a 0.78-acre plot that has long sat vacant at the southwestern corner of the former Coliseum site at North Frontage Road and South Orange Street.

Parker is the CEO of Ancora, a science-focused real estate development company that is currently based out of Durham, N.C., and that will soon be moving its headquarters to the nation’s capital city.

Earlier this month, an affiliate of Ancora paid more than $10.6 million to buy a corner of the ex-Coliseum site from an affiliate of Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, the Norwalk-based firm that is overseeing the broader redevelopment of that 4‑acre stretch of parking lots into hundreds of new apartments, parking spaces, and shops as part of a project called​“Square 10.”

The pricey downtown-adjacent land deal follows the City Plan Commission’s approval earlier this year of Ancora’s plans to build a new 11-story lab and office building at that same corner site.

Ancora Vice President Peter Calkins told the Independent that his company should begin construction on the new lab building this July. He said he hopes to have the building finished and open with initial tenants in place by the second quarter of 2025.

“We currently project a total investment of around $220 million, once the project is fully complete and tenanted,” Calkins said.

Parker explained why his company — which invests on behalf of the British pension and insurance fund Legal & General (L&G), and which he said manages more than $2 trillion worldwide — has decided to plow so much money into New Haven.

“We tend to think very long term about our projects and the markets we want to be in. A primary focus is investing in property that is proximate to anchor institutions,” he said.

Therefore, he continued, ​“what brings us to New Haven is primarily Yale and the acceleration of their research enterprise and translation and commercialization efforts” in the life sciences, as well as local and state governments that appear interested in fostering the growth of such a sector.

Translation: Business is booming for mostly Yale-spun-off bioscience companies, and Ancora sees room to build out new lab space to accommodate and propel that growing part of the town-gown economy.

Parker praised the Massachusetts-based developer Carter Winstanley in particular for his company’s work building a cluster of life-sciences buildings nearby, including the already open and occupied 300 George St. and 100 College St., as well as the rapidly on-the-rise 101 College St. Locally based companies like Arvinas, Alexion, and Biohaven, meanwhile, have been growing their New Haven footprint.

“Our hope is to build off of that momentum,” Parker said about Winstanley’s developments. ​“The location of this near 100 and 101 College is great because you want a density of ecosystem.” The same goes for having this site be located between Yale’s downtown and medical school campuses.

Parker also praised Yale’s Lauren Zucker and Josh Geballe for promoting Yale-grown businesses outside of the university’s walls, and he commended the growth of Yale’s medical and engineering schools. ​“A lot of really green shoots coming up from the Yale ecosystem,” he said.

What kinds of companies might ultimately occupy this new 200,000 square-foot lab and office building to be constructed by Ancora in the 10th Square.

“We’re talking about companies that can benefit from infrastructure suitable for life sciences or tech,” Parker said. ​“The connectivity of the building, structure, mechanicals are all set up to be attractive to the type of companies that are seeing employment bases” grow in New Haven. That includes future businesses focused on quantum, AI, and cell and gene therapy.

Does his company think it can really raise the money to build such an expensive project on a long-vacant lot?

“We have an incredibly large balance sheet,” Parker said about Ancora’s $2 trillion worldwide. ​“Access to capital is not the issue. What we don’t want to do is deliver a vacant building” after construction is done. He declined to comment on whether he’s already lined up any tenants for the property.

In a separate phone interview with the Independent on Monday, Josh Geballe, a former Lamont administration top official who is now Yale’s senior associate provost for entrepreneurship and innovation, welcomed the news of Ancora’s setting up shop in New Haven with such a big project.

This speaks to the ​“rapidly growing biotech cluster that’s forming around the hospital, medical school, and the projects that have been developed by Carter Winstanley,” he said.

“It’s a noteworthy statement that you have global investors now coming into the New Haven market, which I think is largely a function of the momentum and growth that this market is enjoying today.”

He said that all of this new lab space coming online, especially in the downtown, Hill, ​“10th Square” areas should help keeping Yale-spun-off companies from leaving New Haven for larger cities like Boston as they grow.

Geballe also noted how 101 College has been fully leased out for almost a year already, even though the first tenants are still a year away from moving in. ​“This is why projects like this are so important, to ensure that we’re continually investing and staying ahead.”