A new Gilead building hit its first major milestone, signaling the company’s continued expansion in Foster City amid a generally slow-to-recover life science real estate climate.
The life science company has been headquartered in Foster City for years, and its main campus is situated at its Vintage Park location. The campus, about 72 acres, is currently undergoing construction with two new buildings. The technical development building recently hit its “topping out” milestone — when the last and highest structural beam is completed.
The building is located at its main campus, a five-story, 180,000-square-foot structure that is “designed to support next-generation biologics development with pilot labs and advanced digital capabilities,” according to a recent press release.
Alex Sarr, senior project manager at McCarthy Building Companies said the new construction reflects a growing trend for life science and research and development buildings to maintain flexibility over a long period of time.
“Gilead knows what they’re going to use the space for, but they still need flexibility for multiple years to come and what they have planned to do in five years may be different than in 10, 15 years,” Sarr said, adding that more life science firms are adding in more flexible designs to their R&D buildings.
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The construction has continued amid a sluggish life science real estate market over the last couple years. Some Peninsula cities, including South City and Belmont, have had to extend developer agreements on several proposed projects due to delayed financing and unfavorable lending conditions.
Gilead also purchased the Chess Hatch property, situated between State Route 92 and Chess Drive, about a decade ago and is in the process of redeveloping it. According to the most recent plans, the company plans to build out the site, located about 1 mile from the main campus, in two phases. During the first phase, eight of the 12 existing buildings would be demolished, with construction completed on a two-story, 175,000-square-foot lab building and construction starting next year. The second phase would include the demolition of the remaining buildings and the construction of one 600,000-square-foot R&D building.
“Our new Technical Development Center will harness the latest technology and support cutting edge technical capabilities to accelerate our progress in biologics development,” Stacey Ma, executive vice president of pharmaceutical development and manufacturing at Gilead, said in a press release. “Built to be highly sustainable and digitally integrated, this building is a bold investment in American innovation and the next generation of transformational medicine.”
The building is expected to be fully complete in June 2027.
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