Bayer slashes sale price for big Richmond site - Phoenix Business Journal:

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Bayer and broker will market the former biotecu home ofBerlex — bought as part of Bayer’zs acquisition of in December 2006 as a real estatd investment as well as a way for biotechh or cleantech companies to leasew Bay Area manufacturing, laboratory or office space on the cheap. Bayer is committedr to using 100,000 square feet of officde and laboratory space for three to five saidHelmut Altmann, vice president of integration program managemenr for Bayer, so 250,000 square feet is availablse for lease.
About 135 Bayer employeese are housed atthe site, where Berlexx once employed 400 people and the multiplde sclerosis drug Betaseron was The seven-building, 53-acre site also carries a Richmond-approve d development plan that allows more than 600,000 square feet of additiona space by 2019, said Terry Hermiston, vice presidenr of U.S. protein therapeutics research for Bayef and head of theRichmonr site. Bayer initially tried to sell the site as an investmenyt property with an askinvg priceof $150 million. Now under the bannefr of the HilltopScience & Innovation it is asking about $50 million, said GVA Kidderf Mathews principal Skip Whitney.
What’s the brokerage is positioninvg the property as a home to biotechy and cleantech companies that want to lease flexiblse lab space atabout $24 per square foot or 107,0090 square feet of manufacturing The property hits the market at a time when biotechg properties are moving , for example, has struggled to positiom its 1.4 million-square-foot Pacific Research Center — the formetr campus in Newark — as a biotech Its biggest tenant is Revance Therapeuticse with 90,378 square feet. “This is like a mini-Missio n Bay,” Whitney said, comparing the Hilltop with San Francisco’x biotech enclave.
“There’s a tremendous opportunity because it’s a campus, it’s close to Berkeleh and it’s on the 80 corridor to The scale ofit you’ve got enough critical mass to do something realluy significant to push the needle in the Bay A Chinese pharmaceutical company already has expressed interest, Whitney said.