January 3, 2022

CBRE arranged the recent sale of three office/flex properties to Thor Equities for $45 million. The properties are located at 20, 30 and 50 West Gude Drive in Rockville, Maryland, collectively known as “West Gude Labs” comprising of 231,582 square feet across three buildings. The properties feature the base building attributes required to facilitate a first-class lab renovation in Maryland’s flourishing life sciences corridor, where demand continues to outpace supply.

CBRE represented the seller in the transaction led by  Executive Vice President Tommy Cleaver, First Vice President Dan Grimes, and Vice President Stuart Kenny of CBRE’s Washington D.C. Institutional Properties group – the same team that sold the 435,000 square foot Shady Grove Bio & Tech Campus to Boston Properties in August, their flagship Maryland life sciences project. The transaction officially closed on December 23, 2021.

“Our team worked extensively with the seller over the past year creatively managing the rent roll to unlock vacancy and provide a clear path to life sciences conversion,” said Executive Vice President Tommy Cleaver. “There is an insatiable appetite within the investment community for well-located projects of scale that can deliver inventory to this market quickly. Owners that can provide that will be rewarded.”

The properties have nearly 70,000 square-feet of vacancy available to be immediately converted to a life science use with the potential to convert the remaining office/flex spaces over time. The site’s MXE zoning also allows for additional by-right development setting the stage for a larger scale repositioning for future life science uses.

Demand for new life sciences lab space is outpacing speculative construction in the top 12 U.S. life sciences hubs, including in the DC/Baltimore area, as the industry rapidly expands amid a global race for new drug development, according to a new report from CBRE.  And with the U.S. vacancy rate for existing lab and research & development space at a record low of 4.9 percent—including just 1.9 percent in the Baltimore/Washington market—average asking rents are skyrocketing in the top 12 markets, jumping 7.5 percent in September compared to March 2021. Located in the life sciences hub of the Washington Capital Region, which is experiencing record low vacancy and record demand, West Gude Labs will deliver much- needed supply to the market.

 About CBRE Group, Inc.

CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE: CBRE), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Dallas, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2020 revenue). The company has more than 100,000 employees serving clients in more than 100 countries. CBRE serves a diverse range of clients with an integrated suite of services, including facilities, transaction and project management; property management; investment management; appraisal and valuation; property leasing; strategic consulting; property sales; mortgage services and development services.