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.

Five Bay Area restaurants have been tapped to the California Michelin Guide across Oakland, San Francisco and Wine Country.

The so-called “new discoveries” are eligible for further honors including the prestigious Michelin Star or budget-friendly Bib Gourmand awards at the French tire company’s California ceremony, to be held at the Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay on Aug. 5. The Bay Area picks were among 13 from across the state in the latest batch, which featured three from San Francisco including Tenderloin gem Azalina’s from Chef Azalina Eusope.

The new additions to the list are:

See the slideshow at the top of our article for more on what Michelin inspectors had to say about each restaurant. The restaurants are highlighted as “New” on the guide website and automatically appear under the broader “Recommended” category.

The French tire company has announced its 2024 California guide selections in regular batches throughout the year, previously in March and May — but to date this year had tapped just one Bay Area restaurant, 7 Adams, from Marlena chef alums and Hi Neighbor hospitality group’s Ryan Cole.

In 2023, the Michelin Guide California crowned ten new Bib Gourmand restaurants, four new Green Stars (for sustainable practices) and six new Michelin starred restaurants statewide.

In April Michelin expanded to hotels with its “Michelin Key” rankings, featuring 19 Bay Area stays.

Time magazine’s CEO of the year keeps busy by running chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. from Austin, Texas.

AMD chief Lisa Su is in the global spotlight once again for building up a corporate powerhouse at a critical time in the industry.

AMD “really is one of the great turnaround stories of modern American business history,” Chris Miller, a semiconductor industry historian, tells Time. The article chronicled AMD’s longtime battle with rival Intel and the new threats brought by Nvidia, which has suddenly dominated the critical AI chip space.

Time delved into Su’s business habits, pointing out that the 55-year-old CEO “holds meetings on weekends and is known among her executives for wanting to talk on morning calls about the finer points of long documents that were circulated after midnight. When prototype chips get delivered from the factory, she often personally goes down to the lab to help scrutinize them.”

Before taking the reins of AMD, she was chief technology officer at Austin company Freescale Semiconductor Inc., as well as an engineer for IBM. She has been one of Fortune’s top business people every year since 2020 and was appointed to President Joe Biden’s council of advisers on science and technology in 2021. Among her many board roles, she is on the board of directors for the Semiconductor Industry Association.

When Su became CEO about a decade ago, AMD (Nasdaq: AMD) stock was a paltry $3 per share. Today, it’s closer to $130.

Su was recently named by the ABJ as one of Central Texas’ power players.