Bain Capital Real Estate Closes $1.02 Billion Sale of Genesis South San Francisco, Class A Life Sciences Campus in San Francisco

BOSTON, MA, October 16, 2020 – Bain Capital Real Estate, the real estate investing business of Bain Capital, and Phase 3 Real Estate Partners, Inc., today announced the sale of Genesis South San Francisco, a Class A life sciences portfolio located at the entrance to the South San Francisco life science cluster, one of the largest life science clusters in the world. The premier, three-building portfolio has been sold to a publicly traded REIT in a transaction valued at approximately $1.02 billion.

The trophy portfolio is strategically positioned at the entrance and overlooking the entirety of the South San Francisco Life Science Cluster. Genesis South San Francisco is surrounded by some of the top biotech and pharmaceutical institutions in the world, including Genentech, AstraZeneca, Merck, Abbvie and Amgen. The fully committed, 796,572 square-foot portfolio is anchored by the prominent 21-story multi-tenant, life science building – the tallest in the country – and features amenities such as two on-site restaurants, fitness center, yoga studio, spin studio showers/lockers, conference centers and a 2,245 space structure parking facility. The portfolio’s tenants include a mix of established and growing biotech companies such as Fluidigm, Sana Biotechnology, Pionyr Immunotherapeutics, Corbion, Arsenal Biosciences, Amunix Pharmaceuticals and Tizona Therapeutics. 

Bain Capital Real Estate and Phase 3 Real Estate Partners acquired the two office buildings and development site through two transactions in 2015 and proceeded to create their flagship Genesis location in South San Francisco. The project is one of the submarket’s largest ready-to-occupy, amenity-filled life sciences campus.

“Phase 3 Real Estate Partners was blessed to be able to work with such an incredible canvas created by the previous ownership and designed by Skidmore Owens Merrill Architects,” said Neil Fox, CEO at Phase 3 Real Estate Partners. “It is not often you come across such a spectacular opportunity to transform a meticulously well-designed project into something special like these assets. The project from start to finish was a pleasure to work on and do what Phase 3 enjoys doing: transforming projects into meaningful opportunities for the growing life science industry. We realize just how fortunate we are to play a small part in helping these science companies achieve their goals of helping make mankind healthier.“

“The Genesis platform Bain Capital Real Estate created six years ago in conjunction with Phase 3 continues to demonstrate the power of our customer-centric investment philosophy whereby we serve as a true partner to our tenants with an intense focus on accelerating their success,” said Joe Marconi, a Managing Director at Bain Capital Real Estate. “Our team’s extensive experience in office to lab conversions enabled us to capture the value of the overlooked office project and transform it into a state-of-the-art campus that attracted a high-quality tenant base. We believe our campus environment, which facilitates research and employee engagement, coupled with an unmatched location in a market known for its rich pool of R&D talent and new company formations, positions Genesis South San Francisco favorably for continued strong occupancy.”

Bain Capital Real Estate’s investment activities in the life science/lab sector have encompassed approximately 5.0 million square feet of acquisitions and development/repositioning projects in strategic U.S. life science markets.
Eastdil Secured served as exclusive advisor to Bain Capital Real Estate and Phase 3 Partners.  

About Bain Capital Real Estate 
Bain Capital Real Estate was formed in 2018 and pursues investments in often hard-to-access sectors underpinned by enduring secular trends that drive long-term demand growth for real estate assets and services.  The Bain Capital Real Estate team has been executing its strategy since 2010 (formerly as a part of Harvard Management Company), having invested over $4.5 billion of equity in over 430 assets across multiple sectors.  Bain Capital Real Estate focuses on small to mid-sized assets where the team applies its deep industry expertise to accelerate impact and drive operational improvements. Bain Capital Real Estate’s strategy aligns with the value-added investment approach that Bain Capital pioneered and leverages the firm’s global platform and significant experience across asset classes to further bolster its insights and sourcing capabilities.

About Phase 3 Real Estate Partners
Phase 3 Real Estate Partners, Inc., (“Phase 3”) with offices in San Diego, San Francisco and Boston, develops premier ready to occupy research and life science facilities. Phase 3’s primary markets include   the major innovation clusters of the United States of Boston, San Francisco and San Diego. Phase 3’s focus on delivering the highest quality space with accelerated speed to occupancy within these key geographies allows life science companies to immediately pursue their scientific goals. The Phase 3 team delivers a clean, modern design aesthetic, the right combination of amenities to create community and appropriate infrastructure to meet the needs of the companies who call our facilities home. The firm’s expertise in development, construction and management of life science facilities results in a strong partnership between our tenants and our team.  Phase 3’s current portfolio consists of [3] million square feet and is growing in San Diego, San Francisco and Boston.