Tarlton buys industrial site in Union City for life science makeover

Tarlton Properties aims to revamp a 3-acre industrial site it just bought in Union City for life science uses. 

The Menlo Park-based developer just paid $10.75 million for neighboring parcels at 33589 Central Avenue and 33288 Alvarado-Niles Road, with plans for a life science conversion, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

John Tarlton, CEO of the firm, said in an emailed statement his firm plans to redevelop the property for life science use. He didn’t provide details.

The developer has filed plans to modernize a 61,000-square-foot warehouse once occupied by a fruit distributor and importer, which moved out in January, Union City staff told the Business Journal.

Union City is working to engage private developers like Tarlton to transform its aging warehouses “for higher and better uses,” Carmela Campbell, the city’s economic and community development director, said.

Tarlton’s project falls in that category. The site’s zoning allows for life sciences and advanced manufacturing.

The firm’s portfolio of 2.8 million square feet of life science and mixed-use real estate in the Bay Area includes Union City Labs, a 400,000-square-foot laboratory three miles from the Central Avenue site. It bought the property in 2021 for $154 million.

Some of its other properties include Hayward Labs, which totals 295,000 square feet; Peninsula Labs, at 250,000 square feet; and Portage Avenue in Palo Alto, with 68,000 square feet.

Its latest life science conversion project comes as the East Bay life science market has cooled.

Life science vacancies in the central I-880 corridor that includes Union City rose to nearly 14 percent in the first quarter,  according to CBRE. 

But the popularity of life science conversions like Tarlton’s remains, according to CBRE, because such projects are often simpler and with fewer obstacles than ground-up projects, given rising construction costs and supply chain disruptions.

As momentum for Bay Area life sciences has begun to slow, the developer has bought underused commercial sites in the region for redevelopment.

Early last year, Tarlton purchased a 300,000-square-foot office campus at 4125 Hopyard Road in Pleasanton with plans to conduct a lab conversion, according to the Business Times.

And it recently proposed a 131,000-square-foot life sciences development in Menlo Park, a few blocks from its corporate headquarters. 

Tarlton is further along with plans for a 255,000-square-foot life science campus a half mile away at 1350 Adams Court. The 92-foot-tall building would house 650 workers near the Dumbarton Bridge and Meta headquarters.

— Dana Bartholomew