The commercial real estate market in the San Francisco Peninsula recorded a marked improvement in the second quarter, according to a recent report from Colliers. Overall, gross absorption was 2.9 million square feet, a 184.5% improvement from the second quarter of 2020. The report includes office, industrial and R&D assets in its analysis.

The R&D sector drove much of the gains in the second quarter. The report attributes the positive gross absorption to the gain in gross absorption to 2 million square feet of office and R&D space new construction deliveries, of which 95.3% was immediately absorbed when it hit the market. R&D space had positive net absorption for the fourth consecutive quarter of 388,000 square feet, a significant improvement from the 49,000 square feet of positive absorption in the second quarter 2020. Still, the sector has a 6% vacancy rate, up 160 basis points year-over-year, but asking rents have increased $1.18 to $5.09 per square foot.

There have been several significant life science properties in the market and surrounding area. In May, Phase 3 Real Estate Partners and Bain Capital Real Estate secured more than $400 million in construction financing for Genesis Marina, a 570,000-square-foot life science campus in Brisbane.