New R&D laboratory planned for SF’s Mission District

The owner of a property in the Mission District aims to build a nearly 265,000-square-foot laboratory.

Reuben Junius & Rose, a real estate law firm based in the city, has filed plans for the four-story laboratory building on behalf of the unidentified owner of 1717 Mission Street, SFYimby reported.

The project would require demolishing a three- and four-story office building containing 86,600 square feet along Highway 101, at Mission and Erie streets.

Designed by Perkins&Will of Chicago, the development would include more than 200,000 square feet for lab space, nearly 51,000 square feet for a 95-car garage, and 14,000 square feet for a loading area.

Plans call for an unspecified laboratory that could host up to four tenants per floor, with the ground floor dedicated for mechanical use and common areas. The garage would take up a single-level basement.

The 1.4-acre property is owned by SLF & W Partnership. The applicant, represented by Reuben Law, formally known as Reuben Junius & Rose, isn’t listed.

The property sits next to the on-ramp for Highway 101. Future employees would be three blocks from the 16th Street Mission BART Station.

An estimated timeline for construction hasn’t been set.

Life science leases in nearby Mission Bay have made it the most sought-after office market in San Francisco, according to a CBRE report. It had a 15 percent vacancy rate in the second quarter, the lowest in the city and well below the 24 percent vacancy rate in San Francisco’s overall office market.

Mission Bay also commanded annual rents of $90 per square foot, compared with the second quarter citywide average of $77, or $83 for Class A office space.

More than 640,000 square feet of office space was in the process of conversion to life science uses in the Bay Area during the first quarter, 2.5 times more than a year ago.

With about 34 million square feet of life science property, the Bay Area has the largest inventory compared with 10 other U.S. submarkets, according to a recent Colliers report.

— Dana Bartholomew

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