Taconic Partners has divested another life sciences project in Manhattan. The developer sold the property at 309 East 94th Street on the Upper East Side for $73 million, according to city records filed on Thursday. The buyer, LCOR, develops multifamily properties along the US East Coast and recently entered the South Florida housing market.
The sale of the 87,000 square-foot ensemble between First and Second Avenues represents a slight premium on the $70 million cash deal through which the site was last transferred from the Karten family to Taconic and its joint venture partners in December 2021. The joint venture, comprising Taconic subsidiary Elevate Research Properties, Nuveen Real Estate, and Flatiron Equities, had planned to construct a 200,000 square-foot Class A research laboratory.
The eight-storey Iron Horse Labs project was conceived to benefit from its proximity to key academic medical institutions such as Rockefeller University, Mount Sinai Medical Center, and NYC Health + Hospitals. A construction loan of $79 million was secured for the project from Ares Commercial Real Estate in 2022, and construction began in 2023. However, the current progress of the construction project is uncertain.
According to The Real Deal, the site currently still comprises a five-storey loft-style building, a two-storey garage, and a car workshop. The Upper East Side transaction follows Taconic's sale of West End Labs at 125 West End Avenue in July for $188 million. This property, part of Taconic's 3.4-hectare West End Campus, was acquired by Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Foundation.
The life sciences sector continues to contend with post-pandemic vacancies. Leasing volume for the life sciences sector in New York City fell by 84 per cent in the first three months of 2026 compared to the previous quarter, according to data from CBRE. Who brokered the sale at 309 East 94th Street is currently unclear. Spokespeople for Taconic and LCOR did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
