Ventas Acquires 800,000 SF Life Sciences Campus in San Francisco for $1B

Genesis South in San Francisco consists of roughly 800,000 square feet of office and life sciences space.

SAN FRANCISCO — Chicago-based REIT Ventas Inc. (NYSE: VTR), through its Life Sciences and Healthcare Real Estate Fund, has acquired an 800,000-square-foot life sciences campus in San Francisco for roughly $1 billion.

The San Francisco Business Journal reports that the property is the Genesis South office and life sciences hub, which consists of two office and lab buildings totaling roughly 720,000 square feet, as well as a 72,000-square-foot building.

The Class A campus is located on the city’s south side and consists of three newly built or renovated buildings. The campus was 96 percent leased at the time of sale with a weighted average lease term of more than six years. The property is purpose-built for advanced research functions and is predominantly features lab space supporting biotechnology and other life sciences research.

Nearly half of the tenant roster consists of publicly traded companies with market capitalizations of $10 billion or higher that are backed by venture capital or private equity firms. The price represents a capitalization rate of approximately 5 percent.

The seller was a partnership between Boston-based Bain Capital and San Diego-based Phase 3, according to IPE Real Assets, which provides global intelligence for institutional real estate investment. In April 2019, Ventas acquired a life sciences property located at 1030 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from the same partnership for $128 million.

Following this latest transaction, Ventas has a life sciences portfolio that spans more than 7.3 million square feet across 39 properties. In addition, the firm has four such projects totaling 1.5 million square feet in various stages of development.

“Strong and growing capital flows into the life sciences sector are accelerating innovation and discovery,” says Debra Cafaro, CEO and chairman of Ventas. “These flows support the demand for first-class lab space in dynamic markets like South San Francisco.”

The stock price of Ventas opened at $42.92 per share on Monday, Oct. 19, down from $72.57 per share a year ago.

— Taylor Williams