UCSF has snapped up another major slice of Mission Bay, closing Wednesday on two adjoining properties that will eventually become the new home base for its School of Dentistry. The university bought the former FibroGen headquarters at 409 Illinois Street and the neighboring building at 499 Illinois Street, a move that will shift dental clinics and training into the middle of UCSF’s health science hub and free up older clinic space at Parnassus for other uses. Renovations are expected to start next year, with a potential opening in 2029.
The deals, completed with Alexandria Real Estate Equities, add more than 525,000 square feet, including a parking lot, to UCSF’s Mission Bay footprint, and the university is keeping the sale price under wraps. UCSF plans to convert the roughly 280,000 square feet at 409 Illinois into dental clinics and about 60,000 square feet of shared instructional space for dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy and physical therapy. Construction is slated to begin in 2026, with a possible opening in 2029. The purchase also gives UCSF full ownership of 499 Illinois, a building it already uses for clinics and research, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Plans For 409 Illinois
"We had to figure out a new home for the School of Dentistry," Brian Newman, UCSF’s director of real estate, said, explaining why the university chose to buy instead of build new. He noted that repurposing 409 Illinois would be "two years faster and significantly more cost effective than building a brand new building," and said UCSF sped up its timeline because other parties, including AI companies, were already touring the space, he told the San Francisco Chronicle.
How 499 Fits In
FibroGen paid roughly $10 million last year to exit its lease at 409 Illinois after cutting staff amid late stage trial setbacks, creating the vacancy that opened this opportunity, according to the San Francisco Business Times. UCSF already occupies significant portions of 499 Illinois for reproductive health clinics and space licensed to the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, and the acquisition pulls that nearby clinical and research work under a single ownership umbrella, per UCSF Real Estate records.
What It Means For Dental Training
Parking the dental school next to hospitals and research labs is expected to broaden students' clinical exposure and interprofessional training. The School of Dentistry currently graduates about 80 students a year, and UCSF has said it hopes to gradually increase that number toward 120 graduates annually, a change that would still need approval from the UC Regents. The larger clinic footprint is also expected to boost patient capacity within Mission Bay's growing network of specialty clinics.
Timeline And Local Context
UCSF expects renovation work at 409 Illinois to begin in 2026, followed by a phased move that could wrap up in 2029, although planning, construction and regulatory approvals will ultimately set the pace. The purchases further bulk up the university’s Mission Bay presence, where UCSF’s buildings inventory lists roughly 4.09 million gross square feet, according to UCSF Real Estate, positioning the dental school amid hospitals, labs and student housing.
