For-sale office campus ripe for life science reposition

An Oregon investment firm is selling a 14-acre office campus with 209,000 square feet of space in Pleasanton as an opportunity for life sciences developers.

Schnitzer Properties, based in Portland, seeks a buyer for Hacienda West Business Park at 3825-3875 Hopyard Road, the San Francisco Business Times reported. While it listed the five-building property, it didn’t specify a price.

Instead, it created a brochure targeted to appeal to East Bay life sciences developers.

Schnitzer, formerly Harsch Investment Properties, paid $38 million for Hacienda West in 2005. Its most recent lease expires in August 2027.

That the firm is marketing a property that is 47 percent occupied as a potential life sciences redevelopment may reflect a tepid Tri-Valley office market.

Pleasanton had a 19.3 percent vacancy rate for prime Class A office buildings in the second quarter, while the Tri-Valley had a Class A vacancy rate of 22.21 percent, according to Newmark.

Tri-Valley office buildings are newer than other parts of the Bay Area, so developers could potentially convert the existing buildings at Hacienda West into labs or R&D space, according to the Business Times.

Such conversions tend to be cheaper than ground-up construction, for which costs have jumped. Across the nation, conversions of offices to life sciences labs have boomed.

Hacienda West Business Park is part of Hacienda Business Park, a commercial campus of 900 acres. It’s next to the 292,000-square-foot Britannia Business Park, acquired by Tarlton Properties in January for $78 million, or $267 per square foot.

— Dana Bartholomew

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