BioMed Realty Expands Life Sciences Holdings in Bay Area with New $135M Buy
In conjunction with the purchase of the Emeryville Center for Innovation, BioMed Realty reports that Novartis will enter into a one-year leaseback on the existing building, during which time BioMed Realty will put forward redevelopment plans to transform the building into a Class A+, state-of-the-art multi-tenant laboratory and office facility.
EMERYVILLE, CA—BioMed Realty has acquired the 250,000-square-foot Emeryville Center for Innovation complex here for $135 million. The deal affords the portfolio company for Blackstone the opportunity to reposition and expand the complex to more than 1 million square feet.
The San Diego-based firm, which now owns approximately 4 million square feet of life science office space in the highly-sought after San Francisco Bay Area, can develop approximately 850,000 square feet of additional laboratory and office space on the campus through an existing development agreement with the City of Emeryville.
In conjunction with the purchase of the Emeryville Center for Innovation, BioMed Realty reports that Novartis will enter into a one-year leaseback on the existing building, during which time BioMed Realty will put forward redevelopment plans to transform the building into a Class A+, state-of-the-art multi-tenant laboratory and office facility with integrated tenant amenities. An affiliate of Novartis sold the property, according to a spokesman for BioMed Realty.
The campus is adjacent to Powell Street Plaza and Bay Street Emeryville, which offer a variety of retail, dining, hospitality and entertainment amenities, and is accessible to the I-80/580 and CA-24 freeways, and the nearby BART and Amtrak stations.
“We are very excited to add to our world class portfolio in the San Francisco Bay Area with the acquisition of a campus that we plan to expand over time. We plan to offer in excess of 1 million square feet of space to innovative tenants including biotech and other laboratory users. We look forward to supporting our growing portfolio of tenants within the Bay Area market with another Class A alternative and continuing our strategic expansion in the core life science markets,” states Denis Sullivan, EVP and CIO of BioMed Realty.
The deal follows the successful signing of a long-term lease with AbbVie Inc. for 480,000 square feet in October 2018 at the first phase of BioMed Realty’s Gateway of Pacific Campus development in South San Francisco.
Jon Bergschneider, BioMed Realty’s EVP and chief development officer leaves little doubt about the firm’s expansion plans at the Emeryville Center for Innovation property. “BioMed Realty will attract life science tenants to this established, robust life science market with close proximity to UC Berkeley, a diverse and talented work force, and existing amenities nearby,” he says. “We look forward to working with the City of Emeryville, the ‘City of Art and Innovation’, to advance the project and expand the life science industry in Emeryville.”
BioMed Realty owns and operates in excess of 11 million square feet of life science real estate in the leading innovation markets in the United States and United Kingdom, including Boston-Cambridge, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, New York and Cambridge U.K.