Tarlton Lands Huge Biotech Gig

By Anna Spiewak, Senior News Editor

John Tarlton, Tarlton Properties

Tarlton Properties Inc. just landed a big one in San Francisco Bay’s booming life sciences market.

The commercial property development and asset manager said on Thursday that it has signed Pacific Biosciences of California Inc. to an 11-year, 180,000-square-foot lease at 1360 O’Brien Drive in Menlo Park, Calif.

“PacBio started in Menlo Business Park as Nanofluidics and has returned because of our ongoing, solid relationship,” John Tarlton, president & CEO of Tarlton Properties told Commercial Property Executive. “We understand the needs of life science companies and are proud to be able to offer PacBio this unique opportunity to move into a facility tailor-made for their operation. PacBio’s Menlo Business Park facility will be 180,000 square feet, allowing virtually all of their manufacturing operations to be on a single floor.”

1360 O’Brien Drive, Menlo Park, Calif.

But the biotech firm is not moving far. In fact, its new home will be just a few doors from its current headquarters at 1380 Willow Road. PacBio will be moving out by Dec. 31, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The property is part of a campus acquired by Facebook Inc. earlier this year. The landlord is looking to take over the property sooner, asking the current tenant to terminate its lease. To sweeten the deal, Faceboook is offering an unspecified rent abatement, according to Silicon Valley Business Journal.  For its part, PacBio will give up its renewal rights while amending its leases to stay in several of its buildings.

The new location at 1360 O’Brien, on the other hand, is the 217,000-square-foot former Office Depot distribution center that Tarlton and Principal Real Estate Investors bought in January for $36 million, as the SVBJ reported.

“When looking for a nearly 200,000-square-foot space, we focused our search on a combination of best design and proximity to our current location,” said Michael Hunkapiller, president & CEO of PacBio, in a statement. “Menlo Business Park meets all of our criteria with their high-quality lab, warehouse and office space and many on- and offsite transit options.”

Prior to PacBio’s lease, another biotech-related tenant, Menlo Park-based medical device company CardioKinetix, settled into 1360 O’Brien in late July with a 14,138-square foot lease.

Kidder Mathews represented Tarlton Properties, and Newmark Cornish & Carey represented Pacific Biosciences in lease negotiations.