Alexandria leases 285K sf at new Millbrae campus to Eikon Therapeutics

Eikon Therapeutics, a biotech firm based in Hayward, will move its headquarters into a new life sciences complex being built across the Bay in Millbrae.

The biotech startup has leased 285,000 square feet of office and laboratory space at the Alexandria Center for Life Sciences-Millbrae, now under construction at 30 Rollins Rd., across the street from the Peninsula city’s transit station, the San Francisco Business Times reported. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Pasadena-based Alexandria Real Estate Equities, a publicly traded real estate investment trust specializing in life-science developm, broke ground on the three-building life sciences project early this year.

The three-building life sciences complex will total 570,000 square feet when completed and feature a 16,000-square-foot amenity center.

The Alexandria Center for Life Sciences campus is expected to be completed in late 2024.

Located at Adrian and Rollins roads between U.S. 101 and El Camino Real, the 4.7-acre site is serviced by both BART and Caltrain.

It’s also next to the Gateway at Millbrae Station, a $401 million mixed-use project that will soon bring market-rate and affordable housing, a Marriott hotel, retail and office space to the area.

Eikon Therapeutics, led by CEO and Chairman Roger M. Perlmutter, is working on a drug discovery platform based on high-resolution protein microscopy designed to offer novel treatments for life-threatening diseases.

The company, co-founded in 2019 by Eric Betzig, who shared in a 2014 Nobel Prize in chemistry, raised $517.8 million in a Series B funding round in January and has raised a total $668 million to date.

Its Hayward headquarters contains 80,000 square feet. The company’s new 285,000-square-foot headquarters and laboratory will be able to accommodate 750 employees.

[San Francisco Business Times] – Dana Bartholomew