Emeryville is set to become a leading life science hub in the nation. With proximity to San Francisco and Silicon Valley, which have a low vacancy rate of 5.7%, Emeryville is attracting biotech and life science companies looking for quality, available space. More than 150 biotech companies are already located in Emeryville, including Novartis, Bayer Healthcare, Amyris and Zymergen.

"Emeryville provides phenomenal access to talent, capital and research and development centers," Darren Hollak, director at Newmark and an expert on the market, tells GlobeSt.com. "In particular, UC Berkeley has established itself as one of the leading centers for biotechnology and offers multiple incubator programs, which has fostered the group of more than 150 life science companies that call Emeryville home. Additionally, the rapid growth of innovators has created an ecosystem for new companies to flourish and grow."

Demand is already exceeding supply. According to Newmark, the life science market has only 122,000 square feet of existing availability but 620,000 square feet of active tenant requirements. Plus, tenants like Bayer have announced plans to expand with a 1 million square foot R&D office campus for 1,000 employees. "Historically Emeryville has been controlled by local investors. With Emeryville now on the map as one of the fastest growing life science clusters in the United States, we are seeing a shift towards institutional capital entering the market including REITS, Pension Funds and Equity Funds," adds Hollak.