Longfellow, PGIM Aim for Life Science Rebound in Redwood City

Longfellow Real Estate Partners and PGIM have spun a roulette wheel around plans to build an 84-acre life sciences workspace hub in Redwood City, betting on a market rebound within five years.

The Boston-based developer and New Jersey-based investor filed revised plans to redevelop the 84-acre office campus at 800-3800 Bridge Parkway and 900-1300 Island Drive, in Redwood Shores, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

The developers drew up slightly smaller plans for the project known as Redwood Life: Evolve, calling for 2.8 million square feet of life science offices and research labs, with more open space between surrounding neighborhoods. The wider buffer was created in response to local opposition.

The life sciences market, faced with a glut of offices and labs and diminished funding, has been fighting to emerge from a four-year slump that led biotech companies to cut thousands of jobs, shed real estate and crimp their drug development pipelines.

“Everyone’s read the headlines about the supply and demand of life sciences in the Bay Area, but we are very bullish,” Peter Fritz, managing director of Longfellow, told the outlet. “This is a compromise with the community.”

The previous plan, designed by St. Louis-based HOK Group, called for 13 buildings from 55 feet to 100 feet tall with 3.1 million square feet of offices across 90 acres along the Belmont Slough.

The new plan’s environmental review is expected to proceed through next year. Pending approvals the project could, at the earliest, break ground in five years, executives say. The project was to include a 104-room hotel, a 46,000-square-foot conference center with a food court and outdoor terrace, and 47 acres of green belts, parks, amphitheaters, athletic courts, lawns and gardens.

Parking garages beneath the buildings would serve more than 7,000 cars.

It was to replace a campus, built during the 1990s, containing 20 two-story, cookie-cutter buildings with 1 million square feet of offices surrounded by parking lots north of the Redwood Shores Lagoon. It’s home to such life science firms as Nevro, Procept BioRobotics and Jasper Therapeutics.

It’s not clear if the latest plans by Longfellow and PGIM, the investment management arm of Prudential Financial, include the hotel and conference center.

The vacancy for life sciences properties across the Bay Area in December hovered around 29 percent, nearly four times higher than five years ago, according to market research by the Business Times.

Joel Marcus, founder of major life science landlord Alexandria Real Estate, recently told Wall Street analysts that government approvals for new drugs, vaccines and treatments remain strong — a positive sign for biotech firms and life sciences projects.

Fritz, of Longfellow, also remains upbeat about the industry’s long-term potential.

“This hiccup has been a capital markets challenge,” he told the Business Times. “The innovation never stopped. We are still in the early days of biomedical research.”

— Dana Bartholomew

Clarification: This story has been edited to reflect that at the very earliest, the project could break ground in five years.