Research is One Economic Sector COVID Cannot Shut Down

EMERYVILLE, CA—One sector of the Bay Area economy that continues to grow despite the COVID-19 lockdown is research and development, particularly in life sciences, sustainable food and technology. A recent example is Perfect Day’s sublease of 112,000 square feet at 740 Heinz Ave. in Wareham Development’s Aquatic Park Campus in Berkeley.

The firm specializing in research, development and production of animal-free dairy products will move this year into 61,000 square feet at 740 Heinz and plans to expand more next year. Wareham’s Aquatic Park campus totals 800,000 square feet.

“There’s no doubt that the shutdown due to the pandemic caused the business sector huge problems.  Most of our tenants are in the research sector and as essential businesses have had staff working onsite because it’s hard to do science in your kitchen,” said Geoffrey Sears, partner at Wareham Development.

Perfect Day isn’t the only company growing along the East Shore. Wareham alone has logged an additional 250,000 square feet of renewals and expansions at its Berkeley and Point Richmond campuses in recent months. Among the transactions, an 85,000-square-foot lease renewed by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, the national research lab for the US Energy Department, at 717 Potter St. in Berkeley. Pivot Bio, an important player in the agricultural microbe space, began as a startup at the campus and is now under construction on tenant improvements at 2910 Seventh St. with a 45,000-square-foot expansion. Additionally, cell-based meat producer Memphis Meats also recently undertook a 20,400-square-foot renewal at Aquatic Park Center.

“Our tenants are companies performing vital research, some of them even directly involved in seeking a vaccine and cures for the novel coronavirus. We see our sole mission as helping them in that quest by making sure they have enough space in the right environments so that they can do their work,” Sears adds.

Sears also points out that growth is not only happening in Berkeley. At the 2 million-square-foot Emery Station Campus in Emeryville, Wareham has completed another 225,000 square feet of lease renewals and expansions in recent months.

One existing tenant renewing and expanding by 35,000 square feet is Berkeley Lights, a single-cell biology research company. Cell therapy company Kyverna Therapeutics, a subtenant at one of Wareham’s Berkeley buildings, has expanded into 21,000 square feet at EmeryStation North in a direct lease. And Stanford Healthcare continues to expand its presence at several buildings in the EmeryStation campus.

But the sector is recording growth in smaller research ventures too. Metagenomi is the latest research startup at Wareham’s QB3 East Bay Innovation Center to grow within a Wareham campus. Metagenomi, a company researching cures for genetic diseases using gene editing systems, took 8,500 square feet at EmeryStation North.

“The ecosystem for research and development along the Eastshore has become much broader with far more industry diversity in recent years,” Sears tells GlobeSt.com. “We’re also seeing strong growth and the need for expansion within much of that ecosystem, not simply as a result of COVID-19 but because of the long-term need for broad medical diagnostics and treatments and the appeal of alternative foods as well as other lab-based innovations. This is continuing to make the market for space in communities like Berkeley, Emeryville and Richmond where we have large campuses quite tight.”

Overall, California continues to be one of the hottest states for life science and biopharma industries, providing more than 1.4 million jobs within the entire state and supporting more than 387,000 jobs directly in the Bay Area, according to a life sciences report by Avison Young. The region is notorious for its close proximity to venture capital and highly educated workforce strengthening the industry and ability of biotech startups up to get up and running within a short period of time.