CBRE Facilitates $85 Million in Construction Financing for State-of-the-Art Life Sciences Campus in Los Angeles

CBRE facilitated an $85 million construction loan for the state-of-the-art 102,000-sq.-ft. Instil Bio Life Sciences Campus in Tarzana, Calif.

CBRE’s Greg Grant arranged the five-year, floating rate, interest only, non-recourse loan on behalf of Instil Bio, Inc. CBRE’s Andrew Riley and Jeff Pion facilitated Instil Bio’s original acquisition of the property in October 2020. With clinical manufacturing operational, the recent financing will support the completion of the commercial manufacturing facility. Located at 18404-18412 Oxnard Street, the campus will feature lab, office space and GMP manufacturing.

“There is an abundance of financing capital in the market for high-quality, purpose-built, life sciences projects – and it is exciting to see more properties like this take shape in the Greater Los Angeles area,” said Grant. “We strategically advised Instil Bio throughout the process to ensure we were partnering them with a flexible lender that truly understood their business."

Instil Bio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative cell therapies in the fight against cancer.

“Los Angeles has continuously ranked among the top 10 life sciences markets given its world-class research institutions and access to skilled labor,” said Pion. “This property will serve as Instil Bio's global manufacturing headquarters, ultimately employing hundreds of scientists and research professionals at the location.”

A new analysis conducted by CBRE identifies the 25 top U.S. life sciences labor markets - ranging from established hotbeds like Boston to emerging hubs like Pittsburgh - illustrating that the fast-growing industry extends well beyond the usual handful of hubs.

The Los Angeles-Orange County region boasts the second-most annual graduates in biological and biomedical sciences in the U.S. - more than Boston-Cambridge or the San Francisco Bay Area and behind only New York-New Jersey. With more than 18,000 people employed as life sciences researchers, the Los Angeles-Orange County market also boasts the fifth-largest pool of life sciences research talent in the nation while VC funding has seen a 566 percent increase in the last five years compared with the national increase of 345 percent.