Dive Brief:

• Crescent Communities, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based real estate investor and developer focused on mixed-use communities, has launched a new brand, The Yield, for life science campus development.
• The company has three life sciences projects underway in the Research Triangle region, of central North Carolina. All together these projects will cover 2 million square feet of bio-manufacturing and lab space across 230 acres, at a projected investment of over $1 billion.
• Crescent isn't the only multifamily firm targeting the life sciences sector, which has some immunity from hybrid and remote trends because much of the work must be completed in the office. For instance, Greystar entered the sector in 2021 in a partnership with CPP Investments.

Dive Insight:

The first phase of The Yield Holly Springs in Holly Springs, North Carolina, sold in January to a partnership between Apollo Global Real Estate Management and GeneSuites. The second phase, a partnership with Crescent and Nuveen, is under construction with delivery expected in late 2023. Crescent has also recently acquired the future site of The Yield Holly Springs North, located in Apex, North Carolina.

While these projects are Crescent Communities’ first in Holly Springs, the developer does have a residential presence in the area, including projects in Raleigh-Durham. The Yield’s projects are among the 7.5 million square feet of commercial and office projects Crescent has under development across the country.

“We see The Yield as an opportunity to inject Crescent Communities’ commercial experience into an industry with substantial demand and opportunity,” said Brendan Pierce, president of commercial at Crescent Communities, in a press release. 

The developer already plans to expand The Yield to other life science markets. 

“We will continue to look for opportunities where there is a highly qualified talent pool, convenient location, proximity to several top-ranked research universities, and reasonable cost of living,” said Chase Kerley, managing director at Crescent Communities, in the release.

The Research Triangle is the sixth-largest life sciences hub in the U.S., according to JLL. Over 600 life science companies have a presence in the area, employing 24,000 local residents with an average annual salary of $142,000 per person, according to the Research Triangle Regional Partnership.

Holly Springs in particular has seen its population nearly double over the last decade, up from 24,661 in the 2010 U.S. Census to an estimated 43,000 in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The area’s life science companies include Seqirus, Amgen and Fujifilm Diosynth.