Jeff Bezos-Backed Startup Scoops Up Swath of Silicon Valley Office Space
Age-Fighting Company Altos Labs Signs Lease for Five Buildings in Redwood City, California
By Katie Burke via CoStar News | September 14, 2021 | 7:01 P.M.
A high-profile name in Silicon Valley’s biotech scene is rooting itself in the region with a five-building office lease set to house its anti-aging research ambitions.
Altos Labs, a billionaire-financed startup aimed at combating the impact of aging with reprogrammed human cells, has leased more than 168,000 square feet in the Redwood Life business park in the South Bay suburb of Redwood City, California, according to CoStar. The deal for space in one of the region’s newest life sciences complexes spans the buildings at 2000 Bridge Parkway, 2200 Bridge Parkway, 2400 Bridge Parkway, 2600 Bridge Parkway and 1300 Island Drive, and will kick off starting in November.
With backing from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Russian tech investor Yuri Milner, Altos is one of the leading examples of well-capitalized biotech startups leveraging spikes in venture capital funding to expand their commercial real estate footprints. For the Bay Area, that has translated into a flurry of leasing activity over the past 18 months among life sciences companies overshadowing the region’s previously dominant tech startups in pursuit of new office space.
Across the country, venture capital firms invested more than $33 billion in biotech companies last year, according to Newmark. That record-setting pace has only accelerated, and venture capital funding has already surpassed $26.7 billion over the first six months of 2021 alone.
Altos Labs has raised more than $270 million since it was founded earlier this year, according to California securities disclosures. The startup did not respond to CoStar News’ requests for comment.
The booming life science market in the Bay Area — the nation’s second-most concentrated biotech market behind the greater Boston region — has meant investors are eager to capitalize on the strengthening tenant base. Developers including Brookfield and Boston Properties have both pivoted a handful of traditional office proposals into repositioned life science space.
Longfellow Real Estate Partners, one of the largest life sciences owners in the country and Altos’ new Redwood City landlord, has tightened its grasp on the Bay Area market over the past couple of years through a series of acquisitions that have since been converted into high-end biotech space.
At Redwood Life, for example, Longfellow acquired a nearly 50% stake in the 20-building office campus back in March 2019 for about $323.4 million, according to CoStar data.
The Durham, North Carolina-based developer has since been in the process of overhauling the former Bayshore Technology Park into a 1 million-square-foot waterfront research complex complete with amenities such as a fitness center with wellness events, outdoor amenity space, on-site TED Talks, a coffee bar, food trucks and wine tastings, an executive dining room and a tenant lounge, among others.
Shutterfly, an image-sharing company, leases more than 50,300 square feet of space for its global headquarters in the Redwood Life complex, according to CoStar data. Other tenants leasing space for their corporate hubs include medical device manufacturer Nevro, Procept Biorobotics and Proteus Digital Health.
Full article by Katie Burke: https://product.costar.com/home/news/295158280