CBRE Arranges $75 Million Note-on-Note Financing to Support First-Lien Construction Financing for 223,500-SF Laboratory Building in Austin, Texas

CBRE secured a $75 million note-on-note financing to facilitate a $105 million first lien construction loan for a 223,500-square-foot build-to-suit life sciences laboratory building located at 3600 Breakthrough Loop in the EastVillage Masterplan Community of Austin, Texas.

The 100% pre-leased building will be occupied by BillionToOne (BTO), a next-generation molecular diagnostics company, at construction completion projected in April 2027 This will be BTO’s fourth location with longtime real estate partner and developer, Tarlton Properties, and its first facility outside of the San Francisco Bay Area.

CBRE arranged the note-on-note funding with a large West Coast regional bank to provide the construction lender, an undisclosed debt-fund lender, with a portion of its $105 million loan commitment. The construction financing will fund a state-of-the-art, CLIA certified facility that will house more than 1,000 employees including laboratory technicians, clinical laboratory scientists, automation engineers and post-doctoral researchers.

The CBRE Debt & Structured Finance team included Bob Ybarra, Jim Korinek and Doug Birrell, as well as Zack Holderman and Jesse Greshin of the CBRE U.S. Healthcare Capital Markets’ Debt & Structured Finance team. CBRE served as the exclusive advisor to the co-sponsor, Tarlton Properties.

“We are very proud of the successful closing of the Austin Labs financing in this challenged life science construction environment,” said Holderman, CBRE’s Senior Vice President of the U.S. Healthcare Capital Markets practice. “We are grateful for the trust of the Tarlton team and benefited from their decades-long development and ownership expertise. The creative note-on-note financing structure facilitated a construction loan to Tarlton, our long-time client, in excess of 70% loan-to-cost despite current stress in the capital markets for the life sciences sector.”

Austin, like many emerging life science markets, benefits from its strong STEM and Healthcare workforce with numerous major technology employers, excellent quality of life and strategic positioning in the country. Located in the heart of the northeast tech corridor in Austin’s Upper East Side just 20 minutes from downtown and the Austin-Bergstrom Airport, the property is well-served by an extensive highway network connecting the Austin region.

The project is part of the EastVillage ATX, a highly anticipated new 425-acre mixed-use development offering a 1.5 million square foot health and life science campus, 350,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, hotels, entertainment, 2,500 multifamily units and over 450 single family homes.

The co-sponsor, Tarlton Properties, is based in Menlo Park, California, and is a multi-generational real estate organization with extensive expertise serving the needs of health and life science tenants. Founded in 1980, the company has managed more than 4.5 million square feet of real estate and currently holds an ownership position in more than 3 million square feet of Class A life science and mixed-use property around the San Francisco Bay Area and Austin. For more information, please visit tarlton.com.