Alexandria Opens Phase 1 Of Alexandria Center For AgTech

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE:ARE) has unveiled Phase 1 of Alexandria Center for AgTech –Research Triangle — the company’s latest strategic agricultural technology (agtech) business initiatives. The development will provide infrastructure and capital to rapidly-growing agtech companies.

The development is the only integrated, multi-tenant greenhouse campus that offers amenity-rich agtech R&D in the United States. The redevelopment in Research Triangle Park (RTP) is fully leased and spans 175,000 rentable square feet of space (RSF). It is situated at 5 Laboratory Drive in North Carolina.

Additionally, construction and pre-leasing of the second phase of the development project, spanning 160,000 RSF, is currently underway at 9 Laboratory Drive. It will further expand the office/laboratory and greenhouse space offering at the Alexandria Center for AgTech. The property will likely be delivered in 2020.

Per management, the company witnessed a surge in capital invested in the agtech industry, as global venture capital funding increased significantly last year. This has likely aided the company’s focus to grow this agtech cluster and address challenges of advancing human health by improving nutrition.

Alexandria Center for AgTech is currently leased to a variety of high-quality companies, including Arysta LifeScience Inc., GreenLight Biosciences, Inc., Boragen, Inc., Elo Life Systems, Inc. and Indigo Ag, Inc. Moreover, the building at 5 Laboratory Drive has been designed to be highly collaborative, and will feature highly adaptable and unique spaces.

At this agtech cluster, the company has launched two proprietary platforms — Alexandria LaunchLabs — AgTech and agtech-focused Alexandria Seed Capital platform that expands its Alexandria LaunchLabs initiative. Notably, Alexandria LaunchLabs provides seed-stage financing to life-science companies, and last January, the company launched Alexandria Seed Capital Platform, extending the funding model.

In fact, Alexandria LaunchLabs – AgTech is situated at the recently-unveiled development. It is a premier, full-service startup platform that will support growth of early-stage agtech companies. It will provide member companies with ready-to-move-in office/laboratory and greenhouse space. Also, it will provide access to seed capital through the Alexandria Seed Capital Platform – AgTech.

This Zacks #2 (Buy) Ranked stock has gained 14.7% over the past six months, outperforming 10.7% growth recorded by the industry.

Other Stocks to Consider

Investors can also consider other similarly-ranked stocks from the same space like Terreno Realty Corporation (NYSE:TRNO) , Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) and Boston Properties, Inc. (NYSE:BXP) . You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Terreno Realty’s FFO per share estimates for 2019 remained unchanged at $1.42, in the past month. Furthermore, it has a long-term growth rate of 8.40%.

Cousins Properties’ Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2019 FFO per share has been revised upward 15.9% to 73 cents in the past month. Also, it has a long-term growth rate of 3.20%.

Boston Properties’ FFO per share estimate for the ongoing year has been revised marginally north to $6.92 in 30 days’ time. Additionally, it has a long-term growth rate of 6.30%.

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