Alexandria Real Estate Equities has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire three life science properties and other selected assets and interests of privately-held Veralliance Properties, a San Diego-based corporate real estate solutions company.

The transaction is expected to be completed during the third quarter of 2010 and ultimately include key management and operational personnel of Veralliance, including founder and president, Daniel Ryan, selected operating assets, as well as other interests.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities has an asset base approximating 1.7 million square feet as of 30 June 2010. Alexandria's San Diego asset base services more than 30 life science client tenants, including The Scripps Research Institute, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly, Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, Ambrx, Intellikine, Fate Therapeutics, and Sapphire Energy.

Joel S. Marcus, chairman and chief executive officer of Alexandria, says: "This strategic transaction represents a transformative event for our company in the critically important San Diego life science cluster market, which is anchored by a sophisticated talent pool, solid cadre of biopharmaceutical companies, important investment capital base and a deep concentration of leading academic centres, including the University of California, San Diego, The Scripps Research Institute, the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, among others.

“While Alexandria has built and has held the life science real estate leadership position in San Diego over the past 15 years, we have been keenly interested in strategically expanding our footprint. As Veralliance is the largest and highest quality private developer of office/laboratory space in the San Diego region, we are very pleased to have the opportunity to enhance our dominant market position by joining forces with their highly experienced management and operational team."

Ryan adds: "I, and my team at Veralliance, are extremely proud to become an integral part of Alexandria, which is the undisputed leader in providing real estate to the life science industry. During my 15-plus years of experience in life science real estate development, I have viewed, with great respect, the dominant position of Alexandria and their commitment to best-in-class assets and operations. Alexandria has an unparalleled track record of attracting world-class life science tenants and a demonstrated ability to assemble a blend of quality life science real estate, operational efficiencies, environmentally responsible components and high quality value-add services. These attributes are highly synergistic with those of Veralliance."