Size of SD Life-Science Leases Surprising

Schoneman: “It might be the changing political and economic environment that is causing some of these larger deals to take longer than normal, since the companies are taking a more thought-out, conservative approach to their decision-making process.”

SAN DIEGO—All of San Diego’s lease transactions in the life-sciences category during Q1 were below 30,000 square feet, which hasn’t happened since 13 quarters ago, JLL SVP Grant Schoneman tells GlobeSt.com. According to a recent report from the firm, during Q1, there were more renewal deals than average and a large decrease in class-A deals compared to the quarterly average.

The report also revealed that only 24% of leases signed during the first quarter were in class-A space, which is down significantly from the trailing three-year average where 50% of all leases signed were in class-A space. Total availability for the San Diego life-science cluster ended Q1 at 10.8%, a modest 10-basis-point decrease from the end of 2016.