Sterling Bay Lists Bioscience Asset as Lincoln Yards Stalls

Sterling Bay is looking to offload a biotech property on Chicago’s North Side, as its life sciences real estate holdings and its Lincoln Yards project face setbacks.

The Chicago-based firm, led by CEO Andy Gloor, listed the Lincoln Park Bioscience Center at 2430 North Halsted Street, as its $6 billion Lincoln Yards megadevelopment, located about a mile away, remains stalled, CoStar reported.

CBRE’s Brannan Knott, Chris Bodnar, Cole Reethof, Corra John, Dan Lyne, Jesse Greshin and Zack Holderman are marketing the property for sale.

The asking price wasn’t disclosed, but the building’s occupancy and market conditions may influence its value. The five-story, 125,600-square-foot building is 41 percent leased to two tenants, Cyclopure and Evozyne, with a weighted average lease term of 5.6 years.

Sterling Bay purchased the building from the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital for $24 million in 2018, aiming to attract large biotech tenants to feed into its Lincoln Yards development. However, demand for life sciences real estate, which boomed during the pandemic, has declined across major markets.

This slowdown prompted Sterling Bay to offload several properties next to the 53-acre site in effort to financially propel the stalled development. The timing is crucial since the Lincoln Yards project is yet to secure a tenant for its first completed building at 1229 West Concord Place, a sign of the uphill battle facing Chicago’s biotech ambitions.

Sterling Bay and Harrison Street, who formed a joint venture for the project, invested over $19 million on renovations and tenant improvements. The joint venture refinanced the building in September 2022 with a $64.3 million loan from Capital One, which replaced a smaller loan from a different lender.

As Chicago continues to push for growth in the biotech sector, efforts have been mixed. While Sterling Bay’s Lincoln Yards project remains in limbo, other developers, such as Trammell Crow, have made strides in life sciences with successful projects like Fulton Labs in the Fulton Market district.

However, competition remains fierce as Chicago vies for status alongside major biotech hubs like Boston and San Francisco.

— Andrew Terrell