Taconic Partners and Nuveen Real Estate have announced plans to redevelop the 125 West End Ave property in New York City into a life science building.

Late last year, Taconic and Nuveen invested $230m (€250m) to buy 125 West End Ave and 320 West 66th Street assets, along with an adjacent unbuilt site. The property, which totals nearly 500,000sqft of commercial space, forms part of the campus of broadcaster ABC.

ABC is expected to vacate the site in January 2021.

In line with the acquisition plan, Taconic and Nuveen intend to redevelop the eight-storey 125 West End Ave asset into a 400,000sqft purpose-built lab building and expect to complete construction in 2023.

Taconic said it continues to evaluate options for the rest of the site.

Taconic Partners co-CEO Paul Pariser, said: “The life sciences sector in New York City is showing great strength and resiliency in the face of the pandemic, and we at Taconic are emboldened by our previous successes in pursuing this next project.

“125 West End Avenue promises to be a significant milestone in the emergence of a dynamic life sciences cluster on the West Side.”

Nadir Settles, senior regional head at Nuveen Real Estate, said: “The opportunity at 125 West End Avenue comes at dynamic moment for the life science sector, and will benefit from continued private and public life sciences funding, technology advances, a favourable regulatory environment and overall increased interest due to the pandemic.”

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