
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is rolling out a major expansion next to the organization’s Redwood City headquarters in a boost for the Peninsula’s struggling biotech sector.
The Chan Zuckerberg Institute for Advanced Biological Imaging signed a 226,000-square-foot lease at Elco Yards, a new project on the edge of downtown along the Caltrain corridor, according to people familiar with the deal. Completed at the end of December, it was one of the single largest biosciences transactions in the Peninsula market and the largest new lease overall in San Mateo County.
The agreement could provide a positive jolt to the market, real estate observers say. Bay Area life sciences companies have been cutting jobs amid a yearslong industry slowdown.
The institute targeted an area that included Palo Alto and San Carlos but favored Elco Yards because of its resources, including an ability to provide state-of-the art microscopes, sources said. It is one of the few expansions of biosciences lab space in a Peninsula downtown.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, an umbrella entity encompassing both for-profit and nonprofit ventures with funding from Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, first moved to Redwood City from Palo Alto in 2018. CZI, as it is known, subsequently expanded to other offices in Redwood City and is currently headquartered at 1180 Main St. in the city.
The value of the imaging institute’s lease is approximately $375 million, people familiar with the deal said.
The deal comes after the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative completed an 111,000-square-foot expansion at its nearby headquarters last year, according to market data. The organization did not respond to a request from the Business Times seeking more details.
In late 2021, the Initiative pledged up to $3.4 billion in funding over the next decade to study and eventually eradicate human disease, with the imaging institute announced as part of its plans. The institute assembled an initial research team in 2022. Among its research areas, it’s exploring how superior imaging methods with high-powered microscopes could be a key to understanding such things as how cancer cells influence tumor growth.
Elco Yards is a massive development in downtown Redwood City. Developed by IQHQ, it features a mix of properties with about 670,000 square feet of life sciences and office space and hundreds of planned residential units. At roughly eight acres, the project includes four buildings, each averaging just over 200,000 square feet. The Chan Zuckerberg imaging venture took one of those buildings.
Elco Yards was designed by WRNS Studio and is marketed for lease by Cushman & Wakefield’s Ben Paul. Mike Courson, with Newmark, and Matt Germino, with CBRE, represented Chan Zuckerberg in lease negotiations.