Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. Signs Ground Lease; Development of New York City's Pre-Eminent Commercial Life Science Center to Begin

PASADENA, Calif., Jan. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. , the Developer and Landlord of Choice to the Life Science Industry(R), announced today that an affiliate has signed a long-term ground lease with the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. The ground lease enables Alexandria to develop the East River Science Park, which is designed to become New York City's premier flagship destination for life science clustering. This development project is intended to be the centerpiece of New York City's plan to dramatically increase its ability to retain, grow, attract and foster collaborations by and among a broad and diverse spectrum of entities in the life science sector. Alexandria has also secured an option to lease and develop an immediately adjacent parcel that overlooks New York City's East River. Upon completion, and in the aggregate, the mixed-use urban life science campus will encompass approximately 3.5 acres comprising approximately 1.1 million gross square feet. This signature project will incorporate Alexandria's proprietary programmatic components that serve as the keystone of Alexandria's visionary life science cluster business model. Alexandria now intends to open its New York regional office near the East River Science Park site.

The East River Science Park, as an urban science campus, is intended to create a robust life science cluster in New York City, helping transform the city into a world class destination for the sector. Alexandria's unique niche in creating and growing life science clusters, which it pioneered, will be adapted to New York City as it develops a state-of-the art urban campus and provides its proprietary products and services to the broad and diverse life science sector which it intends to attract.

The East River Science Park, located in Manhattan, north of the Bellevue Hospital Center between East 28th and 29th Streets and First Avenue and the FDR Drive, nearby to the New York University Medical Center Campus, one of New York's leading institutions, will also capitalize on its proximity to the city's other top academic medical research institutions and major hospitals. These pre-eminent institutions include Columbia University, Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center, The Mount Sinai Hospital, Rockefeller University, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, as well as a myriad of independent research institutions, world renowned scientists and medical professionals.

From its inception, the East River Science Park has been supported and encouraged by the public sector as a magnet for the rich and diverse science conducted in New York City. As evidence of such important support, the public sector will fund certain public infrastructure improvements. These public infrastructure improvements include, among other things, the relocation of a sewer and other critical utilities that service adjacent public institutions, construction of certain access routes, the cleanup of preexisting site conditions, and other costs to ensure an efficient and workable interface with surrounding public buildings and sites. In addition, Alexandria obtained and the project is entitled to receive certain other economic benefits from various governmental agencies, including: (i) payments in lieu of real estate taxes, (ii) sales tax exemptions on materials purchased in connection with the construction, and (iii) a mortgage recording tax exemption.

In addition to the support from the City and State, New York City's business community, through the New York City Investment Fund and Partnership for New York City, has committed up to $10 million in capital to the East River Science Park.

The East River Science Park campus is now slated for groundbreaking, and will be developed in two phases. Phase one encompasses the construction of two office/laboratory towers approximating 670,000 gross square feet. The first tower is intended to include 16 floors comprising a spectrum of life science uses, including office/laboratory space for life science entities at all stages of growth, a state-of-the-art digital conference center, convergence cafe, space for clinical drug operations and other translational uses. The second tower will include office/laboratory space, as well as street-level retail. The plan also calls for a glass-enclosed Winter Garden, significant open space, including a riverfront esplanade. The phase two option parcel will include the development of a third high-rise office/laboratory tower approximating 420,000 gross square feet on approximately one acre of land.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. is a publicly-traded real estate investment trust focused principally on the ownership, operation, management, acquisition and selective redevelopment and development of properties for the life sciences industry. Our properties are designed and improved for lease primarily to institutional (universities and independent not-for-profit institutions), pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, life science product, service, biodefense and translational research entities, as well as government agencies. We are the leading provider of real estate to the life science industry with an asset base that currently consists of 159 properties comprising approximately 11.2 million square feet plus an imbedded pipeline for the ground-up development of approximately 6.1 million additional square feet.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. The Company's actual results might differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in the Company's Form 10-K Annual Report and other periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.