Puget Sound Business Journal - by Jeanne Lang Jones -- Dendreon Corp. confirmed Tuesday that it has leased space at Russell Investments Center in downtown Seattle and at the Earl Davie Building in South Lake Union, as the Puget Sound Business Journal reported last week.
Dendreon is leasing approximately 175,000 square feet on eight floors in the Russell Building for its administrative and operational staff and subleasing just under 100,000 square feet of space in the Earl Davie Building for its research and development teams.
Jones Lang LaSalle managing directors Hans Kemp and Bob Mooney represented Dendreon in the lease negotiations. Russell Investments Center was formerly the headquarters for the now-failed Washington Mutual.
Dendreon (NASDAQ: DNDN) is the largest locally based biotech in Washington state. Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Dendreon’s Provenge immunotherapy treatment for prostate cancer. Dendreon said it expects revenue of up to $400 million this year as it ramps up production of Provenge.
Last week, the Business Journal reported that Dendreon had filed for building permits on Feb. 4 for to make interior alterations on space in the Russell building and was close to signing a lease for ZymoGenetics’ former lab space in South Lake Union.
The Russell lease will give Dendreon a significant and long-term presence in downtown Seattle. In an email, the company said the leases will enable Dendreon to “continue to grow in Seattle as we realize our mission of transforming the lives of patients with cancer.”
Dendreon’s leases, while significant. aren’t likely to affect office rents in downtown Seattle, according to Kip Spencer, co-founder of OfficeSpace.com, an online listing service.
Dendreon had signed a preliminary letter of intent last spring to take 191,000 square feet of space in developer Martin Selig’s 635 Elliott building and potentially another 60,000 square feet of space in the neighboring 645 Elliott Building, both near the waterfront at the north end of downtown Seattle, but that deal was never consummated. Sources speculate the expense of converting a portion of the space in the Elliott properties into laboratory space helped undermine that transaction.
