Starwood Property Trust provided $237.7 million to refinance the first phase of Pathway Triangle, Commercial Observer reported. The borrower, King Street Properties, secured the debt for the advanced manufacturing and life sciences campus located at 1000 Science Drive in Morrisville, North Carolina.
The JLL Capital Markets team of Brett Paulsrud, Amy Lousararian, Andrew Gray, Ward Smith, Hugh Doherty and Libby Horton arranged the financing. The initial phase covers four buildings and nearly 582,000 square feet, with Novartis serving as anchor tenant and Liquidia Pharmaceuticals as another prime tenant.
What happened
Pathway Triangle sits in North Carolina's research triangle, a biomedical hub that includes Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. The property sits two miles from the Raleigh-Durham International Airport, with access to Interstate 40, Interstate 540 and North Carolina Highway 54. According to Commercial Observer, the research triangle has secured $575 million in state grants and generated nearly $21 billion in private investment over the last 19 years.
The loan finances the completed portion of the campus. Upon the completion of the second phase, the entire Pathway Triangle campus will span more than 950,000 square feet. The asset sits within King Street Properties' portfolio of manufacturing properties, which includes Pathway Devens in Massachusetts and Pathway RTP in North Carolina.
What it changes for a closing
For closing teams, multi-phase life sciences campuses require clean legal separation between completed operational parcels and active development land. Title officers and lender counsel must confirm that phase lines, construction access agreements and shared utility easements keep the mortgaged four-building phase independent from future construction work on the remaining footprint.
The presence of specialized pharmaceutical occupants such as Novartis and Liquidia Pharmaceuticals also places extra weight on lease review and tenant estoppels. Closing lawyers must confirm that advanced manufacturing tenant improvements, specialized facility covenants and expansion options match loan agreement representations before funds advance.