CEL-SCI Corporation – BIOMANUFACTURING FACILITY

Case Study – Acquisition and Redevelopment (“Buy-to-suit”)

Baltimore, MD

Size
76,785 square feet

Project Type

  • Office / Lab / Biomanufacturing

Financing & Development Services

  • Building Identification and Acquisition
  • Development Management
  • Lease Structuring
  • Identification and procurement of project
    and subordinate debt.

Project Schedule
Acquisition:3Q07
Construction Start: 1Q08
Rent Start:4Q08

Current Status
Fully Occupied and Operational
Owned by an LLC Affiliate of BioRealty, Inc.

A single-purpose entity affiliate of BioRealty acquired and redeveloped this 76,785 sf existing facility for use and occupancy by CEL-SCI Corporation – an emerging biotechnology company publicly traded on the American Stock Exchange (www.cel-sci.com, Ticker: CVM). CEL-SCI has and continues to manufacture a new and innovative immune-based head and neck cancer therapy within the facility. That therapy is part of a recently completed 928 patient, phase 3 clinical trial that was conducted at 101 study locations in twenty three countries. This trial was considered the largest clinical trial ever done for a head and neck cancer.

The facility was acquired and redeveloped by BioRealty at a cost of approximately $22M. At completion, it was leased to CEL-SCI under a long term lease. The building includes lab and office space as well as serves as CEL-SCI’s principal biomanufacturing location for this new cancer therapy. The project development team consisted of BioRealty and BE&K Building Group, LLC. That team made all efforts to accelerate construction of the facility in order to expedite bringing this new cancer therapy to market.

In 2021 CEL-SCI and BioRealty completed an additional $10.7M of improvements to the property in order to expand the facility’s manufacturing capabilities and bring the manufacturing areas up to “current” GMP standards. This work was done in advance of CEL-SCI filing its Biologics License Application (“BLA”) for its lead, head and neck cancer therapy.

The project is located in an undisclosed location of Baltimore, Maryland – one of the primary U.S. life science markets. In addition to providing development management services, BioRealty executed and closed on all components of the financing for this project during a very difficult capital market environment; consequently, it is indicative of BioRealty’s unique ability to secure lease-backed financing for early stage companies with complex facility requirements.