East Bay Life Science Campus to Expand

Oakland-based Harvest Properties received approval to move forward with its expansion of East Bay life science campus named Emeryville Bay Center. Harvest is looking to capitalize on the Bay Area life science market, which has remained robust, despite a slight slowdown compared to earlier in the year.

The campus is located at 6425-6475 Christie Avenue. The development will expand the three-structure campus with a new mixed-function building totaling 210,000 square feet. The Bay Center campus sits on 2.67 acres overlooking the waterfront. Building A is 121,762 square feet, Building B is 83,520 square feet while Building C is the largest at 123,286 square feet. Each of the existing buildings plus the new addition will be sited on individual plots.

“Our goal is to expand the campus with a life science building that gives a nod to the existing architecture on the site yet is slightly more modern and efficient than the existing buildings,” Tom Wagner, partner at Harvest, told the Emeryville Planning Commission. “From our March 4 meeting, we’ve had an opportunity to further design the plans to better identify some of the public open space, further develop the parking garage, identify the public art and then address what we took away from the last meeting.”

The majority of the revisions from the March meeting centered around parking. Most surface parking was eliminated in favor of increased open space, and the new parking structure was updated from a seven-story building to a six-story building but wider and with nearly 100 more stalls. Public space would include multiple seating areas, a bike station and a dog run.

While not as hot as earlier in the year, the Bay Area life science market has remained strong in the third quarter, according to a report by Kidder Mathews. The region had a 4.2 percent vacancy rate, which was up 1 percent from the previous quarter. Alameda County had a higher vacancy rate at 7.8 percent, which is up 2.8 percent from the second quarter.

There is also currently 7.2 million square feet of life science development under construction in the Bay Area market, according to the report.