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Genentech buys South San Francisco baking school site for $36.5M
Acquisition adds parcel next to drug company’s headquarters campus
Drug manufacturer Genentech has added to its South San Francisco campus just weeks after it announced layoffs at its headquarters at 1 DNA Way.
The firm bought the location of culinary school San Francisco Baking Institute for $36.5 million, according to a deed filed in San Mateo County records. The site, located at 525 DNA Way, sits just a few blocks from Genentech’s South San Francisco headquarters, where two weeks ago it announced plans to lay off 436 employees.
The 525 DNA Way property contains a 32,000-square-foot building that sits on a nearly 3-acre site, data from PropertyShark shows. The San Francisco Baking Institute, through an entity called Coscinelle LLC, acquired the site in 2002. The culinary school, which opened in 1996, was founded by Michael Suas, who runs a bakery in Mission Dolores called Thorough Bread and Pastry.
The San Francisco Baking Institute site is surrounded by Genentech’s South San Francisco campus. The campus consists of more than 40 buildings used for scientific research and manufacturing, according to the company’s website. Many of the properties in the assemblage have DNA Way addresses. This includes 500 DNA Way, which sits less than a block away from Genentech’s latest acquisition.
A spokesperson for Genentech said the purchase of 525 DNA Way was in the works for more than a year and was unrelated to the recent layoffs. The company declined to provide any information on its plans for 525 DNA Way.
“More than 15 years ago, we made a strategic decision to exit commercial manufacturing in South San Francisco,” Genentech said in a statement last year. “This decision was part of a thoughtful, long-term plan to focus clinical supply manufacturing in South San Francisco where it is co-located with our R&D organization while moving commercial manufacturing to other sites in our global manufacturing network.”
Genentech, an affiliate of Swiss healthcare company Roche, has operated in South San Francisco for the past 40 years, according to a previous report from a local ABC News affiliate. The layoffs take effect on June 5.