Alexandria buys portion of site of planned life science campus in Millbrae

Alexandria Real Estate Equities paid $21 million to acquire part of the site of an approximately 578,000-square-foot life science project it’s proposed for the city of Millbrae.

In September, the life science-focused REIT spent that amount on a pair of warehouses at 201 and 231 Adrian Road, the San Francisco Business Times reported Tuesday. The two buildings collectively total about 42,000 square feet and were previously owned by Cooper SF Realty LLC, a real estate investment company, according to Old Republic Title records. Alexandria also acquired a 0.11-acre swath of land used as surface parking for one of the warehouses from Cooper SF as part of the $21 million transaction, according to data from commercial real estate analytics firm Reonomy.

The City of Millbrae’s website lists the addresses of the pair of buildings and the surface parking space as part of the “Alexandria Life Sciences Campus” project, a four-building complex totaling about 578,000 square feet that would contain lab, office, and amenity space. Alexandria, the project’s applicant, owns three parcels within the larger development site through an affiliated limited liability company called Millbrae Partners LLC, according to the city’s website. The other five parcels within the total project site are each owned by different LLCs and family trusts, the city’s website and Old Republic Title records show.

One of those property owners, Millbrae Adrian Science Park LLC, owns a self-storage facility at 210 Adrian Road. The LLC is an affiliate of Longfellow Real Estate Partners, a life science developer that recently purchased the facility for $80 million. Longfellow aims to demolish the existing property and build an approximately 260,000-square-foot building suitable for lab or office tenants.

Because the city of Millbrae’s website lists the site of Longfellow’s project within the site of Alexandria’s, it’s unclear whether Longfellow’s proposed building is part of Alexandria’s planned campus. It seems unlikely that it is: Longfellow filed conditional use and design review permits with the city for its project at 210 Adrian Road that are separate from Alexandria’s application, both of which are now under city review. As for Alexandria, the city deemed its application for the Alexandria Life Sciences Campus complete in September. It’s also now under city review.

[San Francisco Business Times] — Matthew Niksa