Life sciences company Opentrons is moving its headquarters to 47,790 square feet in Long Island City, Queens, from Dumbo, Brooklyn. It also brought its own pandemic response laboratory.

Opentrons, a company that makes robots that automate some parts of experiments like pipetting, signed a 10-year lease for the space at 45-18 Court Square West in the spring, Crain's New York Business first reported. Asking rent is $85 per square foot on a triple-net basis, according to a landlord representative.

SEE ALSO: Argentinian steakhouse Baires Grill to open New York flagship in Tribeca Thanks to the city's life sciences initiative, building on the $500 million Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged five years ago, The deal was made even sweeter when it committed $500 million to the program in June. The six-story development, developed by owners King Street Properties, The Carlyle Group and GFP Real Estate, comes with a 20-year real estate tax abatement, making it more affordable for tenants.

“The real estate tax abatement was really considered fundamental to making this project possible,” Newmark’s Bill Harvey, who was part of the team representing the property owners group on the deal, told Business Observer. “We estimate the value of the real estate tax abatement could be $16 to $17 per square foot per year.”

Harvey said the Epidemic Response Laboratory has moved into a 13,000-square-foot, six-story office building, also known as Innolabs. After Opentrons relocates from its 20 Jay Street headquarters in early 2022, the remaining space will be divided between Opentrons and its other subsidiary, genomics company Neochromosome.

The Epidemic Response Laboratory is contracted by the City to process COVID-19 tests at NYC Health + Hospitals facilities within 48 hours. Since its launch in June 2020, it has also sequenced variants of the coronavirus for public health officials, Crain's New York reported.

Opentrons marks the first lease at the 276,000-square-foot Innolabs development, but Harvey said the property has already attracted strong interest from a variety of institutions and start-up life sciences companies.

Newmark's Harvey, Jared Horowitz, Jordan Gossin and Emma Kistler handled the building's ownership transaction. It's unclear who represents the tenants.

Celia Young can be reached at [email protected].