Global Life Sciences Cluster Report 2011 - Jones Lang LaSalle

Bay Area
Innovation capital
For more than 30 years, the University of California at San
Francisco (UCSF), Stanford University, and the University of
California (UC) at Berkeley have actively partnered with healthcare,
biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals experts to develop
some of the most cutting-edge advances in medicine. Several
large centers of excellence are hosted by the area universities,
such as UC Berkeley’s Cancer Research Laboratory and
Stanford’s Genome Technology Center.
Fiscal & political resources
In 1998, the City of San Francisco adopted the Mission Bay
Redevelopment plan in an effort to transform the former rail
and shipyard into a world class neighborhood and business
center. With the development of UCSF’s research campus
in 2003, Mission Bay/China Basin became a highly coveted
market for the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors, attracting
tenants and developers to the area. In addition to UCSF,
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, a premier life sciences
developer, has made significant investments in the area.
The Oakland Enterprise Zone was developed by the California
State Legislature in 1993 to stimulate business growth in the
East Bay. Businesses located within the zone, which includes
Berkeley and Emeryville, are entitled to a variety of tax incentives
that promote hiring. Bayer is one of the largest biotech companies
located within this enterprise zone and was a major force in
expanding the zone in 2009, a move that ensured the retention
of thousands of biotech jobs in the region.
San Francisco’s Mission Bay community is today at the
center of the biotechnology revolution. To support expansion
of this flourishing industry and the creation of new jobs, the
City of San Francisco offers a payroll tax exclusion for up
to 7.5 years to San Francisco-based businesses engaged
in biotechnology pursuits.
19 Americas | Jones Lang LaSalle
Outlook
Recent transactions in the Mission Bay/
China basin submarket that include new
tenants, and the future development
plans of UCSF and Salesforce.com, have
provided a renewed surge of excitement for the area. Looking
ahead, San Francisco can expect the transformation of Mission
Bay to be one of its greatest success stories.
In the Mid-Peninsula, given the moderate leasing activity
within the life sciences sector, new development has remained
at standstill since 2008. Alexandria continues to be one of the
major players in life science product with proposed development
of 800,000 square feet in the South San Francisco submarket.
In total, there are 6.4 million square feet of speculative space.
However, without any genuine interest from a major company
looking for at least 250,000 square feet, no progress is expected.
The future of the East Bay life science industry looks bright.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, run by UC
Berkeley, wants to expand in the East Bay by 45 acres and
has narrowed the search to six sites. One of the sites, a former
naval base in Alameda, is offered for free, indicative of
the community’s desire to foster life sciences research and
development growth.
Looking ahead, San
Francisco can expect the
transformation of Mission
Bay to be one of its greatest
success stories.
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