BioMed Realty Makes $80M Bay Area Investment

513 Eccles Ave. Image via Google Street View

BioMed Realty, a subsidiary of Blackstone that specializes in the acquisition and management of life science properties, has completed its $80 million purchase of an 87,991-square-foot industrial building in South San Francisco, Calif., according to The Bay Area Registry. BioMed acquired the property from a private seller affiliated with the Varnhagen family trust.

BioMed’s new facility was built in 1960 on a 6-acre plot of land at 513 Eccles Ave. The address is home to Avis Rent A Car.

BioMed’s plans for the facility are unknown, but the property is within 1 mile of the firm’s master-planned, multi-phase Gateway of the Pacific, a 2.2 million-square-foot life science research and office campus where Nobell Foods recently leased 66,234 square feet.

Keen on life science developments

BioMed continues to expand its life science investment and development portfolio nationwide. The firm recently broke ground on its 600,000-square-foot 585 Kendall life science project in the Kendall Square neighborhood of Cambridge, Mass. The building has been preleased in its entirety by Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

In August, BioMed received $514 million in construction financing for its Assembly Innovation Park, a 485,000-square-foot life science tower in Somerville, Mass. The project broke ground in January and is scheduled to deliver in the second quarter of 2024.

The firm is also in the process of expanding its Emeryville Center of Innovation campus by 265,000 square feet. Completion is expected in 2024.

The Bay Area’s life science success

With a total inventory of 35 million square feet at the end of the year’s third quarter, The San Francisco Bay Area remains one of the largest markets in the nation for life science real estate investment and development, due to its condensed number of research universities, tech companies and hospitals. Despite a lull in overall occupancy, the region continued to see an expansion of its development pipeline, some 7 million being under construction as of September, according to data from a Newmark report.

One of the ongoing developments is IQHQ’s Elco Yards project in downtown Redwood City, Calif. Upon completion, the mixed-use property will add 600,000 square feet of life science space to the city’s inventory.