Leading office investor grabs NC State Centennial campus properties for $80 million
Ventas Inc., a leading real estate investment trust, has acquired a pair of office, lab and industrial buildings for $80 million in the university research park of Centennial Campus at North Carolina State University, real estate services firm JLL Capital Markets announced.
The Center for Technology & Innovation at 1010 Main Campus Drive and the Keystone Science Building at 1791 Varsity Drive total 175,444 square feet of Class A office space holding tenants with research and development labs. These include the Nonwovens Institute, a leader in the textile nonwoven-fabric industry.
Chicago-based Ventas owns multiple research, office and life science properties based in universities, with over $2 billion invested in this real estate across the United States, according to its website.
“The Centennial Campus acquisition is part of Ventas’ focus on growing our Research & Innovation (“R&I”) portfolio, the Company’s top capital allocation priority,” said Tim Sanders, senior investment officer at Ventas. “These investments in an established research campus allow us to broaden our footprint in North Carolina and begin a new university relationship with NC State University. Our NC R&I portfolio includes the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter in Winston-Salem, and The Chesterfield in Durham which is part of our footprint with Duke University and Duke School of Medicine.”
The seller, Keystone Corp., developed the facilities in 2010 and 2016.
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“Public-private partnerships between office building owners and universities with STEM curriculums in particular, are incredibly sought-after opportunities by investors today,” said Ryan Clutter, senior managing director at JLL. “These investments offer a high tenant retention possibility and outsized returns as compared to traditional office buildings. We believe more and more capital will flow into these opportunities going forward and NC State’s Centennial Campus is well positioned to benefit from this interesting trend,” Clutter added.
Ventas currently has $1.5 billion in signed commitments for projects in institutions like Arizona State University, University of Pittsburgh, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University.
