Nektar Squeezes Good Sublease Deal from Pfizer

SAN FRANCISCO-Two months after revealing a deal was in the works, Pfizer has landed a tenant for an under-construction, 102,283-square-foot R&D building in Mission Bay that it pre-leased long-term but will never occupy. Nektar Therapeutics said Friday will relocate its corporate headquarters and R&D operations to the 201,000-square-foot building from San Carlos, CA, in the second half of 2010.

Owned by Alexandria Real Estate Equities, the building is known by its street address, 455 Mission Bay. Nektar says in an SEC filing that it will pay no rent for the first four years of its 9.5-year sublease commitment for upper west-wing floors the building. After that, it says the starting rent will be approximately $35 per square foot, triple net, which is well below the going biotech rate of $48 per square foot. The rent will top out at $41 per square foot per month.

Pfizer inked a 15-year pre-lease for the building in mid-2008 [http://www.globest.com/news/1213_1215/sanfrancisco/172866-1.html] but changed its mind in mid-2009 [http:///news/1446_1446/sanfrancisco/179676-1.html], shortly after acquiring Madison, NJ-based Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a purchase that included a global real estate portfolio. Pfizer instead is keeping its R&D operation in South San Francisco at 259 East Grand Ave., the home of Rinat Neuroscience, a company it acquired in 2006.