Venture sells San Carlos life science plant for almost double its price in 2019

The 230K sf facility last sold for $99M and was fully leased to a pharmaceutical company at the time

Graymark Capital's Brian Hecktman, BentallGreenOak's Sonny Kalsi and 120-150 Industrial Road in San Carlos (Graymark Capital, LinkedIn)
Graymark Capital's Brian Hecktman, BentallGreenOak's Sonny Kalsi and 120-150 Industrial Road in San Carlos (Graymark Capital, LinkedIn)

Graymark Capital and Nuveen Real Estate sold a drug manufacturing plant in San Carlos for $190 million, almost double what they paid for it in 2019.

The buyer was a venture between Graymark and BentallGreenOak, which obtained a $195 million loan from an affiliate of investment firm KKR, the Mercury News said. The deal was recorded with the San Mateo County Clerk-Recorder’s Office on Feb. 3.

San Francisco’s Graymark and Nuveen bought the 230,000-square-foot building at 120-150 Industrial Road in 2019 for $99 million. The property near Highway 101 was 100 percent leased to Mylan Pharmaceuticals at the time, and the deal was Graymark’s first life science acquisition on the Peninsula and its third overall, the San Francisco Business Times said.

Mylan said in 2019 that it would merge with Upjohn, Pfizer’s generic medicine business, to form a new drug manufacturer, Viatris. The company notified employees and California authorities in March 2020, eight months before the Viatris merger closed, that it would eventually shutter its San Carlos facility. Viatris notified the state in October that it planned to close the site and lay off 75 workers effective Jan. 7, pharmaceutical news site FiercePharma said.

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San Carlos has become a mid-Peninsula hot spot for biotech and tech companies in recent years, as projects such as the Alexandria District for Science and Technology have brought several new life science tenants to the area.

More could be on the way: Alexandria Real Estate Equities recently completed and leased up the first phase of that district, containing some 520,000 square feet, and plans for it to eventually total 1.6 million square feet. Elsewhere in the city, Premia Capital and Prince Street Partners are building a 174,000-square-foot life science project, the site of which the pair sold to a Florida pension fund last year for $177 million.

Premia also filed plans with the city last year to demolish several warehouses at Bayport and Howard avenues and build a 190,000-square-foot life science building there. Its proposal is under city review.

[The Mercury News] — Matthew Niksa

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