Bill Ackman locks down first site for brain research campus
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman is assembling a West Side campus for brain research, paying $260 million for a life sciences building and the neighboring industrial property.
Ackman’s Pershing Square Foundation purchased the 400,000-square-foot property at 125 West End Avenue from Taconic Partners and Nuveen Real Estate for $188 million, according to property records. He revealed the acquisition in an interview with Fortune. He has also signed a contract to acquire the adjacent 320 West 66th Street for $70 million, Fortune reported.
Together, the properties will be redeveloped into a 700,000-square-foot brain research institute in partnership with Mount Sinai Hospital System.
The institute, to be called the Ackman Oxman Institute, is named for Ackman and his wife, Neri Oxman. The project was inspired by personal tragedies that touched both of their families.
According to Fortune, Ackman decided to pursue the institute after his 26-year-old daughter, Lucy, suffered a brain hemorrhage in February and was found unconscious in her apartment 15 hours later.
Lucy has lost her voice and much of her sight but has improved substantially, thanks to cutting-edge treatments, Ackman told Forbes. Oxman also lost her mother to Alzheimer’s disease five years ago, another catalyst for the project.
Taconic and Nuveen bought the property in 2019 for $230 million from Silverstein and developed West End Labs, a life sciences campus. Before its conversion, the property housed ABC/Capital Cities and, earlier, served as a Chrysler parts and service facility. The owners announced its first tenant in 2023 and refinanced the development with a $300 million loan from Apollo Global Management the same year.
Ackman told Fortune that he and his wife eyed the 125 West End site five years ago, but the price for the real estate and staffing was too high. But a slump in the life science sector helped make the plan viable, he said.
Taconic did not immediately respond to TRD’s request for comment.
– Elizabeth Cryan
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