NYU Langone Takes 105K SF at Innolabs in Long Island City

King Street Properties and GFP Real Estate continue to lord over Long Island City’s life science market, landing another significant lease at Innolabs.

The landlords inked NYU Langone to a 105,000-square-foot lease at 45-18 Court Square in Queens, the Commercial Observer reported. The health system will occupy more than a third of the development.

The Neuroscience Institute, the Institute for Systems Genetics and the Tech 4 Health Institute will also relocate to Long Island City this year. The health system will also launch another research program at the hub, the NYU Tandon School of Engineering’s Biomedical Engineering Program.

Details of the lease, including term, asking rent and brokers, were not disclosed.

Innolabs is one of the leading life science hubs in the borough. Two years ago, robot builder Opentrons nearly doubled its footprint at the property, expanding to 94,000 square feet less than a year after the company’s initial 48,000-square-foot lease.

New York City boasted more than 3 million square feet of exclusive lab space at the end of last year, according to a report from CBRE. That is expected to swell to more than 5.2 million square feet by the end of the decade.

But the life science market in New York City slowed down last year after exploding in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic. While leasing velocity last year was the third highest on record, it still trailed the previous year. Asking rent on exclusive lab space also declined 9 percent from 2022, when it stood at an all-time high.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities plans to build a third tower as part of its life science campus in Kips Bay, a project delayed in part by the pandemic. The city owns the land for the project and expects financing to close in late 2024 or early 2025, clearing the way for construction to begin.

— Holden Walter-Warner