San Bruno Mall Redo Pairs Life Science Hub with Housing
Alexandria Real Estate Equities has unveiled plans for a mega-project in the San Francisco Peninsula that will transform an aging shopping mall in San Bruno into a hub with 1.8M square feet of office and research space and 1,000 new homes.
The plans are linked to JCPenney's announcement in January, noting it would close its 275,000 square foot anchor store in May at the Shops at Tanforan, a 970K square foot mall located along San Bruno’s main commercial corridor at 1122 El Camino Real. Pasadena-based Alexandria bought the 54-year-old mall in 2022 for $328M.
The life science REIT is partnering with San Francisco-based Strada Investment Group on a massive mixed-use redevelopment of the 44-acre mall. The plans, which were unveiled to city officials last week, envision a high-density, transit-oriented project that blends housing, retail and open space with three life science buildings designed to support hundreds of workers.
At last week’s meeting, San Bruno Planning Commissioner Auros Harman urged Alexandria and Strada to prioritize affordable housing in the Tanforan redo. City officials say the mall’s location next to the San Bruno BART station makes it an ideal location for workforce housing. San Bruno’s state-mandated housing goal requires the city to plan for 3,100 new homes by 2031.
The developers are planning to include up to 200 affordable units in the mixed-use project. Strada has started discussions with two affordable housing developers and is expected to choose a partner later this year, the San Francisco Business Times reported.
The retail component of the Tanforan redevelopment will include a 63,000-square-foot Target store, which will stay in its current location, an upgraded cinema and a glass-enclosed public market that will be called the Tanforan Central Market.
The 44M square foot life science market in the Bay Area ended 2024 with a huge surge in leasing activity led by large deals in the San Francisco Peninsula, which accounted for nearly 86% of the total volume of 1.9M square feet across the nine-county region.
The surge in life science leasing, which more than doubled from the Bay Area’s Q3 2024 total of 704K square feet, represented an 89% increase over the 10-year, quarterly average for the region.
Life science occupancy in the Bay Area also rebounded sharply in the fourth quarter, with positive net absorption totaling nearly 351K square feet, up from minus 768K square feet in Q3. The Peninsula led the occupancy surge, with positive net absorption totaling 360K square feet in Q4, swinging up from minus 547K square feet the previous quarter, CBRE reported.
The 10 largest life science leases in Q4 in the Bay Area were all located in the Peninsula, with the three largest deals each encompassing more than 200K square feet.
Alexandria operates the Alexandria Center for Life Science, a 739K square foot campus in San Carlos of the Bay Area. In November, biotech startup Vaxcyte inked a 10-year deal to more than double the footprint at the center, expanding its HQ to almost 259K square feet.
The Alexandria Center campus is now more than 97% leased. The REIT is planning to develop another 1.4M square feet at the San Carlos hub, which is in proximity to Highway 101 and within walking distance of the Caltrain rail line.
Source: GlobeSt/ALM