Hines Inks Full-Building Lease in San Diego

Brown Field Tech Park I. Image courtesy of Cushman & Wakefield

PCI Pharma Services, a provider of integrated pharmaceutical development services, has signed a full-building lease with Hines Interests for a 105,475-square-foot industrial facility in San Diego. Cushman & Wakefield Vice Chairman Brant Aberg represented the landlord.

Located at 7725 Otay Mesa Road, the warehouse is part of Brown Field Tech Park I, a Class A industrial campus that also includes a 124,233-square-foot building fully leased to Home Depot, CommercialEdge data shows. Hines acquired the two assets in June, for a total of $77.3 million.

The 2021-completed facility, proposed for LEED certification, features 32-foot clear heights, 277/480-volt power, grade and dock-high loading doors and ESFR sprinkler systems. The property also features concrete truck courts and more than 220 parking spaces.

The 6.3-acre property is some 22 miles from downtown San Diego and 3 miles from Brown Field Municipal Airport, near the intersection of state routes 195 and 125. The surrounding area is home to companies such as Amazon, FedEx, Costco and HJM Enterprises, among others.

San Diego’s industrial leasing activity

According to a Cushman & Wakefield report, leasing activity totaled 766,300 square feet in the San Diego industrial market in the third quarter of 2022. The Otay Mesa submarket witnessed the largest amount of new leases, adding up to 161,400 square feet.

Overall occupancy across the county increased by 236,000 square feet in the third quarter, marking the ninth consecutive quarter of occupancy gains since the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic. The average rent was up 15.6 percent year-over-year at the end of September.

Higher rents are the effect of significant demand in a sector in which the supply pipeline is not directly proportional with the needs for available space. A CommercialEdge report shows that Southern California markets had some of the highest increases of in-place rents over the year as of September, the Inland Empire leading with 9.6 percent. In the same period, the national average grew by 5.8 percent.