A California real estate investment trust that focuses on lab space for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies has made its first purchase in the Triangle.
BioMed Realty Trust paid $17.5 million for a 62,000-square-foot building at 3500 Paramount Parkway in Morrisville that is now leased by Bayer CropScience.
The seller was Duke Realty, which built the lab space in 1999 for PPD, the Wilmington-based drug research company.
Trimeris also occupied space in the building at one time.
Duke bought PPD out of its lease last year and back-filled the space with Bayer.
Duke wasn't actively marketing the property, said Jeff Sheehan, a senior vice president with the company in Morrisville.
But Duke was happy to sell when it got a fair offer since the company's expertise is not in owning and managing lab space, Sheehan said.
BioMed owns or has an interest in 73 properties with 11 million square feet of rentable lab and office space.
The company's assets are concentrated in the seven U.S. markets: Boston, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York/New Jersey.
Business reporter David Bracken came to the N&O in 2004. He covers commercial and residential real estate. Contact David at 919-829-4548 or