Gap found a buyer for its old home, the former Old Navy headquarters, after saying it would move workers to the Embarcadero from Mission Bay.
DivcoWest is under contract to buy the building at 550 Terry Francois Boulevard, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The purchase price hasn’t been released for the building that Gap bought for $342.5 million in 2019.
The investment firm, which bought a vacant waterfront office and research building on Shoreline Court to convert into labs, has similar plans for its latest purchase, aiming to convert the six-story structure into space for life science and biotech companies. Mission Bay’s lab vacancy rate stood at just 0.1 percent last year.
The conversion won’t be the first in the area. After Dropbox paid $32 million to terminate its lease at The Exchange at 1800 Owens Street, the building’s owner is marketing it for use as lab space, which it was built to accommodate. In addition, Alexandria Real Estate Equities is moving forward with a project at 88 Bluxome Street that will be 490,000 square feet of a “lab-ready shell.”
Others are making similar moves. CalSTRS, the California State Teachers Retirement System, recently pledged $500 million toward a life sciences fund run by Longfellow Real Estate.
Other life science developments are being proposed for Brisbane and San Carlos. Healthpeak Properties filed an application to redevelop two towers it owns next to the Brisbane Marina. Redwood City developer Premia Capital filed an application to redevelop warehouses on Howard Avenue in San Carlos.
DivcoWest, which is headquartered at 301 Howard Street, has offices in Los Angeles, Menlo Park, Boston, Washington D.C. and New York City.
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San Francisco
Boston life science developer to expand to West Coast amid region’s lab boom
[SFBT] — Victoria Pruitt