Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. Signs 75,000 Square Foot Lease with National Institutes of Health at Alexandria's Shady Grove Life Sciences Center

PASADENA, Calif., Sept. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), the leading owner, operator, and developer of high-quality, sustainable real estate for the broad and diverse life science industry, is honored to announce a lease transaction for approximately 75,000 square feet with the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at Alexandria's Shady Grove Life Sciences Center in Rockville, Maryland. The 15-year lease expands the NIH's existing presence at Alexandria's translational life science campus to approximately 135,000 square feet. As one of the largest transactions in 2012 for this government agency, this lease affirms the NIH's long-term commitment to Alexandria's flagship life science destination for innovation, collaboration and translation.

This mission critical requirement will house the NCATS Division of Pre-Clinical Innovation. NCATS is a new NIH initiative established in December 2011 to catalyze the generation of innovative methods and technologies that enhance the development, testing and implementation of diagnostics and therapeutics for patients. NCATS Division of Pre-Clinical Innovation advances collaborative research projects across the pre-clinical phases of the translational science spectrum. NCATS Division of Pre-Clinical Innovation includes the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases program, which aims to encourage and speed the development of new drugs for rare and neglected diseases through collaborations among NIH and academic scientists, nonprofit organizations, and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Prior to the lease transaction, the NIH occupied approximately 60,000 square feet on Alexandria's campus for its Chemical Genomics Center, an organization established in 2008 to use high-throughput screening, informatics and chemistry resources to translate the discoveries of the Human Genome Project into biological and disease insights and, ultimately, new therapeutics that will save lives and manage disease.

With this recent lease transaction, Alexandria's four-building, approximately 281,000 square foot campus in the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center is now 97% leased to high-quality client-tenants from the broad and diverse life science industry. Given the significant demand in Alexandria's Shady Grove Life Sciences Center, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission planning board recently approved a preliminary plan granting approximately 231,000 square feet of additional density. This brings the total developable area to approximately 512,000 square feet of high-quality laboratory and office space and provides Alexandria with a unique opportunity to expand this flagship life science destination.

"Alexandria's Shady Grove Life Sciences Center is the leading destination for top life science and technology entities in the Rockville, Maryland submarket," said Joel S. Marcus, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Alexandria. "The announcement of the NIH's new lease for NCATS is a further testament to our triple A location, state-of-the-art real estate, outstanding service and our strategic, long-term relationship with the NIH."

Alexandria is the largest and preeminent life science real estate owner, operator and developer in the Suburban Washington, D.C. cluster, a leading life science hub with established governmental, academic and commercial entities including some of the industry's most important scientific and regulatory agencies. In this cluster, Alexandria currently owns and operates approximately 2.4 million square feet of high-quality laboratory and office space with world-class client-tenants including AstraZeneca PLC, bioMerieux SA, Canon U.S. Life Sciences, Inc., Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, Sanofi, Sigma-Aldrich Corporation and the United States Government.

Scheer Partners represented Alexandria in the transaction, while the NIH was represented by Jones Lang LaSalle.

About Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT), is the largest and leading investment-grade REIT focused principally on owning, operating, redeveloping, developing, and acquiring high-quality, sustainable real estate for the broad and diverse life science industry. Founded in 1994, Alexandria was the first REIT to identify and pursue the laboratory niche and has since had the first-mover advantage in every core life science cluster location including Greater Boston, San Francisco Bay, San Diego, New York City, Seattle, Suburban Washington, D.C., and Research Triangle Park. Alexandria's high-credit client-tenants span the life science industry, including renowned academic and medical institutions, multinational pharmaceutical companies, public and private biotechnology entities, U.S. government research agencies, medical device companies, clean technology companies, venture capitalists, and life science product and service companies. As the recognized real estate partner of the life science industry, Alexandria has a superior track record in driving client-tenant productivity and innovation through its best-in-class laboratory and office space, collaborative locations adjacent to leading academic and medical institutions, unparalleled life science real estate expertise and services, and longstanding and expansive network in the life science community, which we believe result in higher occupancy levels, longer lease terms, higher rental income, higher returns, and greater long-term asset value. For more information, please visit www.are.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws.  Actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.