BioMed Realty pays $80M for site next to South SF project

BioMed Realty paid $80 million to acquire a rental car center next to the developer’s Gateway of Pacific project in South San Francisco, a deal that may portend the next phase of the 2-million-square-foot development.

The Blackstone portfolio company spent about $306 a square foot to acquire the 6-acre site at 513 Eccles Avenue from a family trust, according to public records. Roughly half of the property consists of an 88,000-square-foot warehouse built in 1960, with the rest made up of surface parking, according to title service records. Avis Rent-A-Car System has leased the site since 1998, according to the property records website CompStak.

The car rental company’s lease expires next year, CompStak data show. It’s unclear if Avis still occupies it: It doesn’t have a business license there and no current permits are tied to 513 Eccles Avenue, said Nell Selander, director of South San Francisco’s economic and community development department, in an email. The company posted a new job opening at that address last month, according to the “Careers” page on its website.

BioMed plans to operate Avis’ Eccles Avenue location under existing management through the remainder of the latter’s lease, a spokesperson wrote in an email. It has no near-term plans to redevelop the property, the spokesperson said. Sellander said she and South San Francisco’s planning division are unaware of the developer’s plans for the site.

The acquisition is only the second time the site has changed hands in two decades. The Varnhagen family purchased it in the last deal, spending $5.8 million on the property minus any remaining liens or encumbrances when the sale closed, title service records show.

The property borders the fifth and final phase of BioMed’s Gateway of Pacific project, a 2.2-million-square-foot life science development on the city’s east side. The company broke ground in February on the phase, a pair of five-story life science buildings and a parking garage slated for completion in March 2024, according to San Francisco Business Times data. Phases one through three are finished, with the first two totaling about 950,000 square feet and leased to biotechs AbbVie and Amgen. The third phase is partially leased to plant-based cheese startup Nobell Foods, which signed a 66,000-square-foot lease in March to move its headquarters to the 350,000-square-foot building.

As for phase four, BioMed initially envisioned it as a two-building, 226,000-square-foot life science complex before deciding to go bigger. The company filed plans with the city last year seeking to expand the project to nearly 350,000 square feet by transferring research and development space it was allowed to build in phase five to the development. South San Francisco’s City Council approved the expansion in July.