The Foundry31 building in San Francisco’s East Bay has been acquired by Oxford Properties Group and City Center Realty Partners. (Google Maps)

Oxford Properties Group is pushing full speed ahead with its life sciences portfolio, announcing Thursday morning it has acquired the 402,700-square-foot Foundry31 mixed-use property in San Francisco’s East Bay neighbourhood for about $216 million Cdn.

The facility already contains a significant number of health-related tenants. Oxford and its partner in the acquisition, San Francisco’s City Center Realty Partners (CCRP), plan to convert 100,000 square feet of the building into lab and life sciences space.

The acquisition continues Oxford’s strategy of building a significant life sciences business and follows the recent acquisition of the nearby Public Market Emeryville, the purchase and conversion of Boren Lofts in Seattle and three assets acquired in the Greater Boston Area in early 2021.

“Substantially growing our life sciences business represents one of our highest-conviction investment strategies and top priorities at Oxford,” said Chad Remis, executive vice-president, North America at Oxford Properties, in the announcement.

“The supply of high-quality life sciences space is limited and the acquisition of Foundry31 presents us with a unique opportunity to immediately convert 100,000 square feet to help provide the critical lab infrastructure required that allows innovative biotech firms to deliver the life-changing therapeutics of tomorrow.”

Foundry31 and Oxford’s life sciences strategy

Foundry31 is centrally located at the intersection of Emeryville, Berkeley and Oakland. The property is just miles away from both San Francisco and UC Berkeley at a prime transit- oriented location with quick access to major thoroughfares, BART and the Emeryville Greenway bike path and trail.

“We will continue to grow in strategic markets across North America, including in the East Bay which has one of the nation’s highest concentration of life science companies in the U.S.,” said Tycho Suter, vice-president of investments for Oxford Properties, in the release. “This transaction also grows our partnership with CCRP.

“This project will draw from CCRP’s deep local market experience and track record combined with Oxford’s global best practices to bring much-needed and world-class lab space to this market.”

Oxford’s growth into life sciences in North America will initially focus on the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Boston, San Diego and other emerging locations Oxford has identified for acquisitions. Beyond North America, Oxford is also reviewing opportunities across Europe as it looks for global exposure to the asset class.

Oxford and CCRP are currently partners on the Public Market Emeryville property. They are currently working to convert additional space in that building to lab and life sciences space, and plan future expansions at the property.

“While our firm’s work is national, CCRP’s decade of involvement in this community speaks to our commitment to helping shape Emeryville and the East Bay for a bright economic future and a place that people want to live and work,” said Sig Anderson, CCRP co-founder and CEO, in the announcement.