Photo courtesy of Newmark Knight Frank

Life science specialist Alexandria Real Estate Equities has acquired a 54-acre Norwood property with potential for additional commercial development for $105 million.

Along with a 236,566-square-foot R&D building, the One Investor Way property has undeveloped land suitable for a biomanufacturing facility, according to Newmark Knight Frank, which represented sellers U.S. Realty Advisors and Bain Capital Real Estate, and procured the buyer.

COVID-19 vaccine developer Moderna completed its 200,000-square-foot manufacturing plant at 1 Upland Road in 2018. Alexandria acquired the Upland Road property in August 2020 for $110 million.

“One Investors Way presents an exceptional opportunity to capitalize on the Greater Boston market’s insatiable demand for biomanufacturing inventory,” Newmark Knight Frank Managing Director Matthew Pullen said in a statement.

At year’s end, Pasadena, California-based Alexandria’s Greater Boston real estate portfolio topped 8.5 million square feet at 70 properties, contributing 36 percent of annual rental revenues.

Developers have been on the hunt for suitable biomanufacturing sites throughout eastern and central Massachusetts to provide the local biotech industry with nearby production facilities complementing their lab facilities in Greater Boston. Developers requirements for biomanufacturing facilities exceed 2 million square feet, according to brokerage research.

Boston-based King Street Properties has a 100,000-square-foot speculative biomanufacturing facility under construction at Devens and has approvals to build a total of 700,000 square feet.

Watertown-based Arranta Bio is converting an 80,000-square-foot warehouse at 650 Pleasant St. into 13 current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) suites.

And the Worcester Business Development Corp. has signed deals with contract manufacturer WuXi Biologics and Webster-based Galaxy Life Science at The Reactory, a redevelopment of the 46-acre former Worcester State Hospital property.