CHICAGO – DECEMBER 15, 2021 – Harrison Street, one of the leading investment management firms exclusively focused on alternative real assets, and Sterling Bay West, the west coast division of Sterling Bay, a premier real estate investment and development firm headquartered in Chicago, today announced the acquisition of five life sciences properties and a 13-acre development site located at 10390 Pacific Center Court and 9985 Pacific Heights Boulevard, respectively, in San Diego’s highly attractive and growing life sciences and biotechnology submarket, Sorrento Mesa.
As part of the transaction, Harrison Street and Sterling Bay have the opportunity to develop a six-story building totaling 355,000 square feet with a rooftop terrace and 8,000 square feet of amenity spaces adjacent to the existing portfolio and have plans to develop three six-story purpose-built life sciences buildings over three phases totaling 700,000 square feet on the 13-acre Pacific Heights Boulevard site. The existing state-of-the-art buildings in the portfolio are Class-A tenant buildouts specific to life sciences operations and are leased to Tanvex BioPharama, Wacker and Qualcomm.
Mark Burkemper, Senior Managing Director and Head of North American Transactions at Harrison Street, said, “Sorrento Mesa is the densest, fastest-growing submarket in the San Diego life sciences cluster with nearly half of the surrounding population employed by a professional scientific, technology or research related company. Additionally, support for life sciences and technology in San Diego continues to grow at a robust pace as funding from venture capital rapidly reaches new highs yet demand for purpose-built life sciences spaces consistently outpaces supply in the Sorrento Mesa market, which is facing historically low vacancies. We are pleased to build on our track record with Sterling Bay to deliver high-quality lab space that will support critical biotechnology and life sciences innovation.”
Andy Gloor, Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Bay, added, “San Diego is home to a robust, world-class life sciences sector and the Sorrento Mesa submarket is poised for long-term growth. We are excited to continue our strong partnership with Harrison Street to support critical life sciences research and development in San Diego and throughout top-tier life sciences clusters in the U.S.”
Sterling Bay and Harrison Street have a strong track record of partnering on significant life sciences transactions nationwide, including three life sciences assets in Sorrento Mesa, and life sciences conversion projects at Lincoln Yards in Chicago and in the Denver-Boulder area.
Harrison Street is a leading investor in the life sciences sector with over 6.5 million square feet of lab space across 42 assets globally and is the largest owner of life sciences assets in the UK. The Firm’s assets are associated with the top research and academic institutions with a major presence in the top biotech cluster markets including San Diego, San Francisco and Boston.
About Harrison Street
Harrison Street is one of the leading investment management firms exclusively focused on alternative real assets. Since inception in 2005, the firm has created a series of differentiated investment solutions focused on demographic-driven, needs-based assets. The firm has invested across senior housing, student housing, healthcare delivery, life sciences and storage real estate as well as social and utility infrastructure. Headquartered in Chicago with offices in San Francisco, London and Toronto, the firm has more than 200-employees and approximately $39 billion in assets under management. Clients of the firm include a global institutional investor base domiciled in North America, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Latin America. Harrison Street has been awarded Best Places to Work byPensions & Investments for the last seven consecutive years and was named 2020 Global Alternatives Investor of the Year byPERE. For more information, please visit www.harrisonst.com.
About Sterling Bay
Sterling Bay is a Chicago-based real estate investment and development company with expertise spanning all aspects of real estate ownership. Known for creating world-class urban campuses for companies such as Google, McDonald’s, WPP, Pinterest, Dyson and Tyson Foods, Sterling Bay is consistently recognized for award-winning projects that transform space, enhance communities and strengthen a company’s culture and brand. Sterling Bay’s team of more than 200 professionals is responsible for a portfolio exceeding $5 billion, and a development pipeline of more than $10 billion. For more information, visit www.sterlingbay.com.
