Bank of China provides a $304.281 million USD loan for the 100 Binney Street Project

Project narrative

In April 2016, the Bank of China (BOC) entered into a $304,281,000 USD construction loan agreement with Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. — a Maryland-incorporated life science real estate developer and real estate investment trust based in Pasadena, California listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) — for the 100 Binney Street Project. This loan carried a maturity period of three years with two one-year extension options and a final maturity date of April 20, 2019 and an interest rate of LIBOR plus a margin of 200 basis points (bps). This loan was secured (i.e. collateralized against) by the property at 100 Binney Street. CBRE arranged the loan. The proceeds were used by the borrower to partly finance the 100 Binney Street Project, which sought to construct a 431,483-square foot 10-story laboratory and office research and development property located as part of the Alexandria Center at Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the Greater Boston region. The project had an approximate cost of $485 million USD. John Moriarty & Associates served as general contractor. Elkus Manfredi Associates served as architect. Northstar Project and Real Estate Services served as the owner's project manager. Code Red Consultants served as the smoke control special inspector for the commissioning of the property's two stair and four elevator pressurization life safety systems. Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH) Inc. helped design the roof and waterproofing of the property and consulted on the design of the building enclosure. East Coast Slurry Company was contracted to provide a perimeter slurry wall as a permanent wall and groundwater cutoff. 100 Binney Street was 100% pre-leased in early September 2017. Bristol-Myers Squibb agreed to serve as the anchor tenant, taking 208,000 square feet of the site to use as a research and development facility. Other tenants included a three-floor lease for 130,000-square feet for Facebook and small leases for Foghorn Therapeutics, Sigilon Therapeutics, Tango Therapeutics and TCR2 Therapeutics,. Construction began in June 2015, with completion scheduled for October 2017. The topping off ceremony was held on September 16, 2016. The project was completed on September 21, 2017. As of December 31, 2016, the loan had an outstanding balance of $101,512,000 USD. In November 2017, Alexandria completed a $600 million USD offering of senior notes, the proceeds of which were used to repay loans, seemingly including the BOC loan.