Alexandria Details Plans for Mission Bay Acreage

SAN FRANCISCO-The publicly traded life sciences REIT Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. said this week it will use the land it acquired at Mission Bay last year to develop a 1.4-million-sf “commercial life science cluster” surrounding UC San Francisco’s new life science research and clinical practice campus.Pasadena-based Alexandria is in the process of master planning the property. Pending final approvals from the City of San Francisco, Alexandria intends to break ground this spring for its first building. The 165,000-sf, five-story facility will be located at 1700 Owens St. and is expected to begin certain operations during the summer of 2006, according to an announcement.The commercial life science cluster is intended to bring together wellness centers, clinics and specialty hospitals, venture capital and early stage life science companies, emerging and established life science companies, nonprofit institutes and related governmental entities. Dr. William Rutter, chief executive of Synergenics and Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry/Biophysics at UCSF, says bringing commercial activities into close proximity to the university’s life science campus will create the potential for “tremendous benefits to science, business and to society.”Alexandria acquired the entitled land for the project from Catellus Development Corp. during the second half of 2004. For the previous story, ( click here ). Shares of Alexandria Real Estate Equities fell precipitously Wednesday along with other REITs after fears of interest rate hikes resulted in a sell-off. The Morgan Stanley REIT Index fell nearly 4.4% before recovering some ground to close out the day at 722.01, down 3.7%. The fears were sparked by Federal Reserve Board meeting minutes released Tuesday that relayed concerns over inflation. Curbing inflation generally requires raising interest rates, which in turn makes mortgages and other lending more expensive for real estate.