HANOVER, N.H. (AP) – The Lyme Timber Co. pioneered a niche in the booming timber investment market, but a 12-year-old subsidiary now accounts for most of the company’s value.

Lyme Properties LLC develops environmentally friendly buildings for private biotechnology companies that are popping up around major universities.

While Lyme Timber is recognized for its sustainable forestry and land conservation, Lyme Properties develops buildings that win plaudits for energy conservation and environmentally friendly design.

The company’s signature Genzyme Center in Cambridge, Mass., won two American Institute of Architecture awards for sustainable design and achieved gold-level certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” rating system.

The headquarters for Genzyme Corp., the building features a living roof that absorbs rainwater and mirrors that track the sun to bounce natural light into the building’s interior. It was constructed on a reclaimed industrial site and built in part with wood harvested under strict environmental standards.

Earlier this year, Lyme Properties sold the Genzyme Center, most of its other properties near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and Centerra Biolabs in Lebanon, N.H., to BioMed Realty Trust of San Diego, Calif., for $524 million.

The companies described it as “the largest single transaction in the history of life sciences real estate” and one involving about one-third of Lyme Properties’ holdings. Parent company Lyme Timber is a limited partership and does not file public financial reports.

Daniel Cordeau, senior vice president of life sciences real estate at Spaulding & Slye Colliers in Boston, said Lyme Properties’ managing partner David Clem was a leader in recognizing the potential – and risks – of developing custom laboratory space for companies in the volatile biotech industry.

“Without a doubt they were on the forefront of the industry, they were willing to take risk when others weren’t willing to take risk, (and) it was a great move on their part to do so,” said Cordeau, whose firm competes with Lyme Properties on the development side.

Lyme lowers its risk by forming joint ventures with investment partners and universities.

In July it broke ground on the Center for Life Science Boston, a 1.2 million square-foot project near Harvard Medical School and its affiliated teaching hospitals – the first time a private developer has been able to penetrate Boston’s renowned Longwood medical area on such a scale. Beth Israel Deaconness Hospital has agreed to lease half of the 700,000 square feet to be built in the first phase.

“David Clem is ahead of the curve on … getting up a building that size,” said Cordeau. “No one else at this point in time is able to do that.”

Other Lyme projects in the pipeline include: Science Park at Yale, a redevelopment of the former Winchester Arms manufacturing complex in New Haven, Conn.; a high-end condominium and retail building in Cambridge, Mass.; and a biotech building near Texas Medical Center in Houston.

On the Net:

Lyme Properties: http://www.lymeproperties.com/