Joseph Sutton and Marc Balamaci of Edge complete “highly-structured leasing transaction” that provides below-market rent to tenant while maximizing income stream to landlord
Life sciences company MaxCyte, Inc. has signed a lease with Beckham Gumbin Ventures, LLC (dba) Key West MD Owner LLC for 67,000 square feet at 9713 Key West Avenue, a five-story, 120,000 square foot commercial office building situated in the Rockville section of Montgomery County, Maryland. MaxCyte is relocating and expanding from its existing facilities at 21 and 22 First Field Road in Gaithersburg and expects to move approximately 75 employees to the new location in phases commencing in the first quarter 2022. MaxCyte also plans to substantially increase its workforce during their phased occupancy at their new headquarters. Joseph A. Sutton, Jr., Managing Partner and Marc Balamaci, Partner, Tenant Advisory for Edge represented the tenant in this sizable lease transaction. Edge is a full-service commercial real estate services firm with offices in Washington D.C., Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
MaxCyte provides a patented cell-engineering platform to biopharmaceutical partners engaged in drug discovery and development, biomanufacturing and cell therapy. The platform allows for the engineering of nearly all cell types including human primary cells at any scale. Founded in 1998, MaxCyte has granted licenses for more than 140 cell therapy programs with more than 100 licenses for clinical use.
“Edge negotiated a highly-structured lease transaction that provides below-market occupancy costs for MaxCyte, while also increasing the income stream to Beckham Gumbin Ventures and its partners,” explained Joseph Sutton of Edge. “We listened carefully to the unique needs of MaxCyte, identified options that fulfilled their criteria, and set market norms aside to structure a highly creative lease transaction.”
Sutton explained that the space was formerly occupied by user’s that had vacated space in the building, but remained obligated to pay rent. This provided MaxCyte with the opportunity to absorb the offices over a three-year period while expanding their workforce saving MaxCyte millions in occupancy costs.
“While this was a long and very challenging process, we successfully relieved the former users in the building of their cost burden, the landlord increased its rental income and reduced vacancy to nearly zero, and MaxCyte secured a long term, below market lease to boost their growth trajectory,” Sutton added. “This truly was a win-win transaction for one of our most valued client relationships.”
9713 Key West Avenue is part of the three-building complex known as the DANAC Stiles Corporate Campus containing nearly 300,000 square feet of commercial offices which was converted to Class “A” lab space. Constructed in 2002, this complex was developed as a Class “A” corporate office headquarters with approximately 300 covered parking spaces situated on eight acres of land. The campus is located in Rockville at the intersection of Route 28 and Key West Avenue within close proximity to both Interstates 270 and 370 as well as just 20 miles from Washington, D.C.
Edge is a highly-entrepreneurial boutique commercial real estate services firm providing a full complement of advisory, leasing, investment sales, construction, property management and engineering services to its long-standing client relationships throughout the Washington, D.C., Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Founded in 2007, the company currently leases and manages more than 8.5 million square feet of commercial office, flex/office, industrial/warehouse, retail and mixed-use space. Visit www.edgecre.com.
