Phase 3, Bain Capital Land $165M for San Diego Life Science Campus

Genesis Science Center. Image courtesy of JLL

A joint venture between Phase 3 Real Estate Partners Inc. and Bain Capital Real Estate has obtained $165 million in refinancing for Genesis Science Center, a four-building, 252,000-square-foot life science campus in San Diego. The three-year note with variable interest rate from Capital One pays off existing debt, public records show.

Senior Managing Director Tim Wright, Managing Director Todd Sugimoto and Associate Daniel Pinkus of JLL arranged the financing. The same brokerage team provided the developers with a $400 million loan last year, for the construction of another Genesis-branded campus.

An expanding life science campus

The partnership paid a combined $54 million for the campus in 2019, in three separate transactions financed with a $90 million loan from TPG Capital, according to CommercialEdge data. Brookfield Properties and Qualcomm were the sellers.

Genesis Science Center spans 13 acres and encompasses four low-story buildings completed between 1985 and 1991, ranging from 60,887 to 107,754 square feet. Amenities include an outdoor eatery, fitness center and conference center. Fairfield Residential, Neomorph, PassPort Technologies and iMatrix, among others, are tenants at the fully leased campus.

Located at 5510, 5550, 5580 and 5590 Morehouse Drive within the Sorrento Mesa biotech cluster, the recently renovated property is less than a mile from Interstate 805, connecting it to downtown San Diego. Notable companies in the area include Qualcomm, Aya Healthcare and Mesa Biotech.

The Genesis campus is slated for expansion as the developers are planning an 11-story, 365,000-square-foot R&D building to rise at 5530 Morehouse Drive. Delivery is expected in 2024.

Phase 3 currently owns over 4.5 million square feet of assets throughout San Diego, San Francisco and Boston, whereas Bain Capital’s portfolio holds over 6.8 million square feet of health-care properties. The joint venture develops and manages purpose-built properties in biotech markets under the Genesis brand.