Slated to break ground this summer, the master-planned biotechnology park will rise on a 10-acre site within Paul Ecke Ranch. Located off Saxony Road, the project will be easily accessible from Interstate 5 via the Encinitas Boulevard and Leucadia Boulevard exits. Design plans call for 125,000 sf of office research and laboratory space housed in three buildings with the potential to expand. Carltas officials say this initial phase of the project will be comprised of a one-story, 25,000-sf facility, as well as two buildings that will each encompass 50,000 sf and two stories. All facilities will be divisible to 10,000 sf and will include tenant improvement allowances that will permit the occupants to customize their spaces.

Carltas's project was originally approved by the City of Encinitas for agricultural/biotech uses. However, now that Carltas has received an extension on its major use permit for the site, the project is being planned for biotech uses with an agricultural affiliation.

According to Carltas's president, John White, the Paul Ecke Ranch Science Center will not only be the first biotech project in Encinitas, but it will also be the first biotech campus in San Diego County to include access to one-million sf of greenhouse space. "Most companies who rely upon plant production in the research and laboratory process must utilize off-site greenhouses," White explains.