Healthpeak Properties Plans New San Diego Life Science Build

Healthpeak Properties has started construction on a new life science property in San Diego. The property, known as Sorrento Gateway, is a 163,000-square-foot class-A life science property in Sorrento Mesa. This is Healthpeak’s third ground-up development in the market since 2020.

The development is reflective of the strong demand for life science space in San Diego and specifically in the Sorrento Mesa submarket. San Diego is one of the top three life science markets in the country with more than 20 million square feet of inventory and more than a dozen research institutes and universities that help to attract billions in capital investment to the market. Life science employment is double the national average at 13.5%. The industry provides $33 billion in economic impact and has provided the county with nearly 50,000 jobs.

This sector has also fueled success for Healthpeak Properties. Sorrento Gateway is located next to the investor’s fully leased 196,000-square-foot life science building. Healthpeak has also completed the pre-leasing of The Boardwalk and Callan Ridge campuses in the Torrey Pines submarket. This week, the developer signed a long-term lease with Turning Point Therapeutics Inc. for the entire Callan Ridge densification project, which is located in Healthpeak Properties Inc.’s more than 20-acre Torrey Pines Science Park in San Diego’s Torrey Pines submarket. Callan Ridge is a 185,000-square-foot, two-building campus currently under construction. The class-A campus will feature flexible floorplates, as well as building systems designed to support life science uses. Turning Point Therapeutics’ lease is expected to commence upon construction completion of Callan Ridge, at the end of 2022.

During the pandemic, the life science development has grown not only in existing hubs like San Diego and San Francisco, but in new markets as well. In May, a Blackstone portfolio company BioMed Realty acquired two adjacent development parcels in Seattle’s South Lake Union totaling 1.8 acres. The parcels can support the development of class-A lab and office space to serve life science companies. The terms of the transaction, including the price, were not disclosed.

Likewise in March, Taconic Partners and Nuveen Real Estate secured $393 million in construction financing for the redevelopment of 125 West End Ave., the West Side life science cluster of Manhattan. JLL Capital Markets’ Evan Pariser and Geoff Goldstein arranged the four-year, floating-rate senior loan through funds managed by Apollo Global Management and a mezzanine loan through Oaktree Capital Finance. The same JLL team also arranged $181 million in acquisition and bridge financing for 125 West End and the surrounding campus in Fall 2019.