In a significant move within the Bay Area's bustling biotech hub, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. has secured an early lease renewal with insitro, as the machine learning-driven drug discovery firm extends its stay on South San Francisco's mega campus. The six-year renewal for 143,188 square feet at 279 East Grand Avenue, as announced by Alexandria Real Estate Equities, stamps insitro's commitment to remain on the Alexandria Center for Advanced Technologies - South San Francisco mega campus right through to August 31, 2034.
The life sciences real estate investment trust highlighted that the early agreement reflects insitro's dedication to its headquarters and discovery pursuits, with the deal showcasing not only the need for advanced lab spaces required for the AI-heavy research insitro is known for but also Alexandria's strong positioning within that realm of technical facility provision. Insitro, having initially signed a lease for nearly 36,000 square feet back in 2018, seems set for further growth, it capitalizes on artificial intelligence and machine learning to expedite the development of new medicines in areas like metabolism, oncology, and neuroscience and this relationship expansion indicates a thriving future for both the company and the mega campus, which is rapidly becoming a cornerstone in the life science industry.
Understanding the mechanics powering drug development, AI and ML are transforming the process by applying computational power to vast data resources; thus, facilities at Alexandria's campuses are custom-built to accommodate the intricate and voluminous datasets essential to honing these innovative technologies. "With its goal of bringing better medicines faster to the patients who can benefit most through ML and data at scale, insitro is creating computational models of disease from massive laboratory-generated datasets and aggregated human cohort data to discover new biomarkers and genetic drivers of disease that anchor an advancing pipeline of therapeutics in liver disease, cancer and ALS," stated the Alexandria press release.
Since Alexandria's foray into the birthplace of biotechnology in 1998, South San Francisco has grown into a life science leviathan, practically bursting with companies in the sector, making it fertile ground for enterprises such as insitro. The submarket plays host to a nearly 3.4 million square feet overall Alexandria footprint, of which the Alexandria Center for Advanced Technologies – South San Francisco is a centerpiece, with ongoing developments and amenities designed to elevate the work and well-being of those within such as an integrated high-tech conference center and walking paths promoting health and wellness all of this is a reflection of Alexandria's aim to embody the perfect environment for burgeoning science entities to thrive.
Spearheading the niche of life science real estate since its inception in 1994, Alexandria Real Estate Equities has since soared to becoming an S&P 500 company with a whopping $33.1 billion market capitalization by the close of 2023. They remain a frontrunner in providing spaces that support the highly skilled workforce required by pioneering life science companies, with an expansive North American asset base that includes an aggregation of operational, under construction, and future development projects totaling 73.5 million square feet, per the details provided in their recent announcement.
