Woodstock Angles to Build Life Science Campus in Berkeley

Woodstock Development aims to build a nearly 250,000-square-foot life science laboratory near the Berkeley waterfront.

The Burlingame-based developer led by Kirk Syme filed preliminary plans to build the research building at 600 Bancroft Way, by Aquatic Park, the San Francisco Business Times reported. It would replace a three-building office and research campus built in the 1970s.

The R&D play comes during a slump in the life science market on both sides of the Bay.

Plans by Woodstock call for a 247,600-square-foot building of three- and four-stories, with parking for 512 cars.

The west Berkeley project, designed by Santa Monica-based HGA, would include floor-to-ceiling windows surrounded by white vertical columns, with inset balconies at each end, according to a rendering.

A cost and timeline for the development was not disclosed.

Invesco Real Estate Partners, based in Dallas, bought the current 47,800-square-foot office and research campus in 2021 for $40 million, or $800 per square foot, according to the Business Times.

It was fully leased at the time of sale by tenants such as Bonneville Labs, Lifelong Medical Care, Blue Current and Lumiphore, with average lease terms set to expire 2027.

Woodstock’s pre-application comes during a high life science vacancy in Berkeley, whose life science supply doubled in the last five years.

The influx of labs boosted supply right as demand — and the industry’s once record-high venture capitalist funding — fell.

Vacancy in the 1.5 million-square-foot Berkeley research-and-development market was 14.1 percent in the second quarter ending in June, according to CBRE. The vacancy in nearby Emeryville was 37 percent.

South San Francisco, which touts itself as “the Birthplace of Biotechnology,” now has millions of square feet of approved offices and labs on hold.

A cooling life science market has put 9 million square feet of entitled offices and labs on hold as developers wait out the bust. In the quarter ending in June, the Bay Area’s once-booming 41.5 million-square-foot life science market was 24.6 percent vacant, according to CBRE.

Woodstock Development, founded in 1995 by Syme, has completed more than 3 million square feet of commercial life science projects on the San Francisco Peninsula and in the East Bay, with more than 2 million square feet in its pipeline, according to its LinkedIn page.

In March, Woodstock and San Francisco-based DivcoWest were approved to build a 1.4 million-square-foot life science campus in Burlingame.

— Dana Bartholomew