Graviton Bioscience — a developer of therapeutics to treat autoimmune diseases — recently closed on an agreement to become the first tenant at West End Labs in Manhattan. The company will occupy 30,000 square feet of space in the 400,000-square-foot building owned by a partnership of Nuveen Real Estate and a Taconic Partners subsidiary called Elevate Research Properties.
Taconic’s Matthew Weir and Matthew Malone represented the landlords in-house, along with a CBRE team comprised of Evan Haskell, Jonathan Schifrin, Robert Stillman, Ali Gordon and Taylor Walker. David Stockel of CBRE negotiated on behalf of Graviton. The asking rent was $125 per square foot.
“We are excited to announce the opening of New York City’s premier lab building and we are thrilled to welcome Graviton Bioscience as our first tenant partner,” said Weir, president of Elevate. “West End Labs is the newest and most exciting hub in New York’s life science ecosystem, raising the bar for scale, design, quality and amenities in research buildings.”
“Graviton was attracted to the building’s transformational repositioning that included high-end, pre-built lab suites; robust amenities; and [a] desirable location,” Stockel said. “Ownership’s ability to accommodate our immediate requirement was critical.”
Located between West 65th and West 66th streets, West End Labs previously housed ABC before the broadcaster vacated the premises two years ago. After obtaining financing to the tune of $300 million through an entity of Apollo Global Management, Nuveen and Taconic embarked on a two-year, $600 million renovation effort for the eight-story building. Plans include the addition of a landscaped roof deck, 16-foot ceiling heights for workspaces, a 300-person conference center and the repurposing of a former parking ramp into prime Manhattan coworking spaces.
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