Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages Norway’s $1.4 trillion government pension fund Global, recently acquired a 45% stake in two life sciences facilities in Cambridge, Mass., in a joint venture with Boston, adding Increased real estate holdings. Real estate investment management.
NBIM will pay Boston Properties $746.4 million in stock, giving the properties a combined value of approximately $1.66 billion. Boston Properties will hold the remaining 55% stake and manage the properties on behalf of the joint venture.
Once completed, the two life sciences facilities, totaling approximately 810,000 square feet, will be 100% pre-leased to pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.
“We are excited to expand our portfolio in Greater Boston,” Mee Holstad, NBIM’s chief real estate asset officer, said in a statement. “This investment is consistent with our long-term strategy and we are pleased to strengthen our partnership with BXP in an area in which we have strong conviction.”
The Norwegian pension giant has been investing in commercial real estate in the Boston area for more than a decade, making its first foray into U.S. real estate in early 2013. At that time, GPFG acquired 49.9% of five office properties in Boston, New Jersey. Acquired York and Washington DC from TIAA-CREF for approximately $1.2 billion. The pension fund only started investing in real estate in 2011, buying commercial properties in London and Paris.
In late 2013, NBIM formed a joint venture with MetLife to invest in U.S. office real estate. The joint venture’s initial investment was in Boston’s One Financial Center, where NBIM paid $238 million for a 47.5% stake. In 2018, Norges Bank Real Estate Management acquired a 45% stake in Boston office real estate in a joint venture with American Realty Advisors for $204.8 million. A few months later, the company paid $290.9 million for a 49.9% interest in a mixed-use office and retail property on Boston’s Boylston Street.
In 2021, NBIM paid $391.9 million to purchase a 47.5% interest in Cambridge office real estate in a joint venture with MetLife Life. Later that year, the company paid $485.9 million to acquire a 41% stake in life science real estate in Boston and Cambridge through a joint venture with MetLife subsidiary Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
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Tags: Boston, Boston Properties, Commercial Real Estate, Global Pension Fund, Life Sciences, Mee Holstad, NBIM, Norges Bank Investment Management