Transformation of Mission Bay nearly complete
A new lab and office building could fill the last commercial development site in San Francisco’s Mission Bay, capping off a twodecade transformation of 303 acres of warehouses and rail yards.
Developer Alexandria Real Estate Equities has proposed a 175,000squarefoot lab and office project at 1450 Owens St. It would be the only new commercial project in the area without a tenant. It would add new research facilities in a neighborhood with no empty lab or office space for lease, according to brokerage Cushman & Wakefield.
The project was presented at the Mission Bay Citizens Advisory Committee on Thursday. The committee will offer a nonbinding recommendation. Additional approvals could come by the fall from the Office of Community Investment
and Infrastructure, the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors.
Mission Bay’s other vacant parcels are reserved for affordable housing and additional buildings owned by UCSF, according to city plans. It is one of the city’s largest development areas, with capacity for 6,404 housing units, 4.4 million square feet of commercial space, the 2.65 millionsquarefoot UCSF research campus, a hotel and 41 acres of public space. A new public school, library and community spaces are in the works.
Although known as a biotech and medical research hub, the neighborhood is home to two large tech companies: Cloud storage company Dropbox, which went public last year, has a 736,000squarefoot headquarters at the Exchange project. Uber is nearing completion of its new fourbuilding headquarters, which includes part of the Golden State Warriors arena complex, set to open in September. Alexandria is managing development for Uber’s headquarters.
Alexandria declined to comment.
“You have continued demand in Mission Bay. The challenge, of course, is the supply constraint there,” Stephen Richardson, coCEO of Alexandria, said on an April earnings call.
Alexandria is also the developer of 88 Bluxome, a 1 millionsquarefoot office project in central South of Market. The project could be approved on Thursday by the Planning Commission, and Pinterest leased 490,000 square feet of office space in March. However, construction may be delayed as the city faces multiple lawsuits seeking to invalidate the increase in allowed building heights in the area.