Forge Development Backs Off Berkeley Life Science Plans

Forge Development is rethinking its plans for the former Pacific Steel Casting Company foundry in Berkeley.

The San Diego-based developer filed a new preliminary application with the city to partially renovate and reoccupy a portion of the the 10-acre property in West Berkeley, two years after proposing a life sciences campus on the site, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

The new plan calls for demolishing some buildings and upgrading others totaling about 56,000 square feet. Part of that includes removing some decommissioned equipment and making structural improvements and repairs.

The company hasn’t said whether it still plans life sciences use or is pivoting to manufacturing or light industrial tenants. The site plan suggests renovations won’t immediately make the property ready for tenants to move in, as a separate tenant improvement application would come down the road.

Forge’s initial plan, filed with the city in 2023, called for a 900,000-square-foot life sciences campus on the West Berkeley site. A formal application never materialized, though, likely due to increasing vacancies in the life sciences market. San Diego-based life sciences developer IQHQ, for example, pumped the brakes on its planned $1.3 billion, 857,000-square-foot life sciences campus in South San Francisco.

The Pacific Steel foundry closed in 2018, and in 2021, the city of Berkeley began working to rezone the site to allow other uses like light manufacturing, research and development, industrial, offices and labs.

Forge bought the 10-acre site, which includes the Pacific Steel location and some neighboring parcels, for $49 million in 2023. The addresses include 1320 Second Street, 1314 Second Street and 1305 Eastshore Highway.

Forge isn’t giving up on developing there just yet.

“They haven’t pulled away from investing in that property,” Elizabeth Redman Cleveland of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development told the outlet.

Berkeley’s R&D inventory has more than doubled since 2020, but venture capital and tenant demand have cooled. The city’s lab vacancy hit 31.4 percent in the third quarter, leaving several new or entitled projects sitting idle, per CBRE.

— Chris Malone Méndez

KEY POINTS:

Forge Development is changing its plans for the former Pacific Steel Casting Company foundry in Berkeley, moving away from an initial proposal for a 900,000-square-foot life sciences campus.
The new preliminary application involves partially renovating and reoccupying a 56,000-square-foot portion of the 10-acre property, with demolitions and upgrades.
This shift comes amidst increasing vacancies in the life sciences market and a cooling of venture capital and tenant demand in Berkeley's R&D inventory.