Silverstein Properties Selling $300M Stake in Manhattan’s Hudson Research Center

Silverstein Properties is selling its stake in the Hudson Research Center, a life sciences property in Manhattan's Far West Side. The property is jointly owned with Taconic Partners.

The offering: Eastdil Secured is marketing the deal, which could involve a recapitalization of the project, a partnership with Taconic's life sciences subsidiary Elevate Research Properties, or an outright acquisition of the 318,388-square-foot property at 619 West 54th Street. Pricing is anticipated to be as high as $300 million for Silverstein's stake.

The Center: The 10-story project was previously known as The Movie Lab Building and was built in 1930 as a film-editing house for Warner Bros. Pictures. Taconic bought the building for about $110 million in 2012 and converted it into a research space.

The backstory: Silverstein bought a majority stake in the development in 2017, valuing the property at more than $180 million. The transaction represented Silverstein's first foray into the life sciences market.

The tenants: The research center has secured a roster of top tenants, including the New York Stem Cell Foundation, cancer therapy firm HiberCell and the Bill Gates-backed c16 Biosciences. Last year, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute signed on for 23,000 square feet of lab space to open the Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine academic research hub with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The center opened in March.

Marketing materials highlight the scarcity of purpose-built supply for life sciences use in New York City, as well as the property's "recession-proof rent roll."