Alan Gold, chairman and CEO of BioMed Realty Trust (NYSE: BMR), joined REIT.com for a CEO Spotlight video interview during REITWeek 2014: NAREIT’s Investor Forum, held in New York.
BioMed is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2014. Gold was asked about some of the biggest changes in life sciences realty during his career and strategies for keep BioMed competitive.
“It’s an exciting business model, in the sense that it hasn’t changed since the very beginning,” he said. “We’re focused on acquiring scientific research laboratories.”
Gold cited the members of BioMed’s management team as the force behind keeping the firm on the leading edge of the sector.
“We have some of the brightest, strongest, most dedicated individuals focused on providing optimal spaces for our tenants,” he said.
Gold was asked about the possibility of emerging markets playing more of a role in the life sciences sector. BioMed operates in markets with ties to academic research institutions—such as San Diego, San Francisco and Boston.
“We believe those institutions have generated a tremendous amount of new innovation and new technologies,” Gold said. “We believe that there are other markets that have that same sort of opportunity. We’re exploring those other markets, and we believe that they exist.”
Gold also discussed the firm’s development and redevelopment pipelines, especially in light of the rapid changes in the biotechnology industry.
“That’s the really fantastic thing about our business model: We’ve created high-quality buildings in high-quality locations that are reusable and re-leasable by a variety of tenants by creating a tremendously robust infrastructure,” he said.