The new strategy give's Alexandria a much larger tenant pond to fish. The company's regional market director, senior vice president Steve Richardson tells GlobeSt.com the casting of the wider net is not a response to a slowing of interest by life science relative to pro forma lease-up or development schedules, Richardson says.

"The reasoning is much more along the lines of the reality here that traditional Silicon Valley tenants such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Intuit, Adobe and Salesforce.com are expanding up into San Francisco in order to attract talent," he says. "We thought it prudent to look at our holdings and decided that a mix of a few of those select tenants would be good for them, good for the life science companies and good for UCSF."

Alexandria's Mission Bay campus is thus far fully entitled for six buildings totaling one million sf beyond the one completed late last year, 1700 Owens, a 165,000-sf laboratory/office building (1700 Owens) that is now 80% leased to life sciences companies. Under construction is 1500 Owens, a six-story, 165,000-sf laboratory/office building that is scheduled for delivery in late 2008. Pre-construction work is under way for twin five-story, 105,000-sf buildings. Next to those is a planned 200,000-sf high rise that is awaiting a build-to-suit deal.