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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

BioMed Realty Expands with Emeryville, California, Center for Innovation

03/19/2019
BioMed Realty, a Blackstone portfolio company, acquired the Emeryville Center for Innovation, located in Emeryville, California. The Emeryville Center for Innovation currently consists of a 250,000 square foot, six-story life science office building and adjacent developable land parcels.

According to company officials the property was acquired for approximately $135 million. This latest investment allows BioMed Realty, an owner of approximately four million square feet of life science office space in the Bay Area, to continue capitalizing on the momentum and strong tenant demand in the San Francisco Bay Area life science market.

This acquisition follows the successful signing of a long-term lease with AbbVie Inc. for 480,000 square feet in October 2018 at the first phase of BioMed Realty's Gateway of Pacific Campus development in South San Francisco.

As part of the transaction, Novartis will enter into a one-year leaseback on the existing building, during which time BioMed Realty will advance redevelopment plans to transform the building into a Class A+, state-of-the-art multi-tenant laboratory and office facility with integrated tenant amenities.

In addition, BioMed Realty has the potential to develop approximately 850,000 square feet of additional laboratory and office space on the campus through an existing development agreement with the City of Emeryville.

"We are very excited to add to our world class portfolio in the San Francisco Bay Area with the acquisition of a campus that we plan to expand over time. We plan to offer in excess of one million square feet of space to innovative tenants including biotech and other laboratory users. We look forward to supporting our growing portfolio of tenants within the Bay Area market with another Class A alternative and continuing our strategic expansion in the core life science markets," stated Denis Sullivan, Executive Vice President & Chief Investment Officer of BioMed Realty.

Mr. Sullivan added, "We are grateful to have had the opportunity to expand our relationship with the team at Novartis, and appreciate the enthusiastic welcome and support from the leaders and staff at the City of Emeryville. We look forward to delivering a world class innovation campus at this location."

The campus is adjacent to Powell Street Plaza and Bay Street Emeryville, which offer a variety of retail, dining, hospitality and entertainment amenities, and has easy accessibility to the I-80/580 and CA-24 freeways, and the nearby BART and Amtrak stations, officials said.

"Acquiring, repositioning and expanding the Emeryville Center for Innovation presents a unique opportunity for us," said Jon Bergschneider, BioMed Realty's Executive Vice President & Chief Development Officer. "BioMed Realty will attract life science tenants to this established, robust life science market with close proximity to UC Berkeley, a diverse and talented workforce, and existing amenities nearby. We look forward to working with the City of Emeryville, the 'City of Art and Innovation', to advance the project and expand the life science industry in Emeryville."

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