BentallGreenOak JV to Develop 100 KSF Bay Area Life Science Project

Rendering of 2225 E. Bayshore Road. Image courtesy of BentallGreenOaks

BentallGreenOak, in partnership with Gray Matter by Graymark Capital, is set to develop Bayshore Bio, a 100,000-square-foot life science campus in Palo Alto, Calif. Construction has begun on the first building, which is part of a three-phase redevelopment of office and R&D buildings into lab spaces.

BentallGreenOak and its partner acquired the three-building campus in 2021 for a total sale price of $56.8 million. Two of the facilities were subject to a $52.9 million loan provided by ACORE Capital and maturing in 2031, CommercialEdge data shows.

READ ALSO: MBH Architects on Trends in Bay Area Life Science Designs

The first phase of the redevelopment is set to encompass 36,000 square feet and is slated for completion by the end of the third quarter. The two-story building will feature 16,903-square-foot floorplates and will include conference rooms, benching style workstations and upgraded electrical capacity, as well as new once-thru mechanical systems. Plans call for the conversion of the former office and R&D buildings into lab space at a 60/40 lab-to-office ratio for biological research and development. The spaces are designed for early-stage VC-backed life science companies, including Stealth, Series A and Series B.

Bayshore Bio’s buildings are located at 2225 E. Bayshore Road, 2197 Bayshore Road and 1050 Meadow Circle in the Bay Area market, with the third structure 7 miles away from the spaces at Bayshore Road. The campus is roughly 16 miles from San Jose, 33 miles from San Francisco and has access to Highway 101.

Bay Area life science space in high demand

Boston, Manhattan, Dallas, Austin and San Francisco were the top five markets with the largest development pipelines at the beginning of the year, according to a recent CommercialEdge report. As of January, the Bay Area had 5.8 million square feet of office space under construction, representing 2.9 percent of stock. Nationally, there were 123.6 million square feet of office space underway, accounting for 1.9 percent of stock.

In the Bay Area, several large life science projects are currently underway, including the Avia Labs at Millbrae Station, an upcoming 315,000-square-foot project campus in Millbrae, Calif., developed by Longfellow Real Estate Partners. The same company is building Bioterra, a 316,000-square-foot life science project in San Diego, after receiving $202.6 million in financing at the end of last year.

Another major project is taking shape in San Francisco. Lane Partners received a $373 million financing package for the construction of the first phase of Southline, a mixed-use, life science project totaling approximately 3 million square feet.

In late 2022, Lincoln Property and Dune Real Estate Partners received the approval for the development of a Bay Area research and development center, anticipated to encompass more than 400,000 square feet. More than $1 billion in economic activity is projected to result from the development.