Biotechs are Expanding in the Bay Area Again: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Genentech, Gilead, Illumina and Verily and More

Biotechs are Expanding in the Bay Area Again: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Genentech, Gilead, Illumina, Verily, and More August 26, 2016
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

The two hottest clusters for biotech startups are Cambridge, Mass. and the San Francisco Bay Area. They both offer proximity to major universities and research institutions that produce top talent. Alexandria Real Estate Equities is still branching out around Kendall Square in Cambridge. Here’s a look at some of the building going on in the Bay Area.

The Cove is a seven-building campus at the junction of Highway 101 and Oyster Point Boulevard in South San Francisco. It will have seven buildings that total 884,000 square feet, which will include an amenities center, green space, meeting space, fitness center and a hotel. CytomX Therapeutics and Denali Therapeutics are planning to move in soon.

Illumina , along with Blackstone Group/BioMed Realty, are building a campus that will eventually be seven buildings near the San Mateo Bridge in Foster City. It’s expected to be 595,000 square feet of space and will, at the start, have 600 to 900 Illumina staffers.

Blackstone Group/BioMed has another project approved on the corner of Gateway and Oyster Point Boulevard. This one is expected to have 1 million square feet, and is alongside another project by the same group, which is on Eccles Avenue.

Again, Blackstone Group/BioMed, has a facility in Redwood City at Woodside Technology Park. Bristol-Myers Squibb is leading a third building of about 260,000 square feet to house its immuno-oncology research business. There are currently 250 Bristol-Myers workers there, but it is expected to be about 400 in September 2017.

A spot dubbed The Landing at Oyster Point, is being developed by a Chinese developer, Greenland Group, which bought the spot from SKS Partners and Shorenstein Properties. It is adjacent to Genentech ’s campus in South San Francisco. When completed, it will be 2.25 million square feet and include a hotel, conference center, as well as retail and restaurant space. Greenland is planning to sink $300 million into the first phase, about 508,000 square feet, in mid-2018.

Phase 3 Properties is turning a 12-story, 150,000-square-foot building, the south tower of what was formerly Centennial Towers, into an area for biotech startups. It also is working to build a 21-story, 400,000-square-foot tower on Highway 101.

Genentech is building an employee center and fitness center on its South San Francisco campus. This spring it opened a seven-story building, the so-called “Building 35,” which has 255,000 square feet. Rumors are that more construction is pending.

Gilead Sciences is doing a lot of re-building on its Foster City campus. It has 72 acres and most recently tore down a single-story building and is putting up a 266,000-square-foot laboratory and office building.

And finally, at least for now, Google/Alphabet’s Verily, has leased and is renovating a site on East Grand Avenue in South San Francisco, the former site of Onyx Pharmaceuticals . It will initially house 400 Verily Life Sciences staffers, and could be home to 1,000. Verily is subleasing 409,000 square feet of office and laboratory space from Amgen , which acquired Onyx in 2013.

And reportedly Merck & Co. is looking at the Bay Area to consolidate its oncology, immuno-oncology, biologics, and cardiovascular drug research programs.

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