A high-security federal lab tucked into South San Francisco’s life-sciences hub is suddenly up for grabs, with a price tag just shy of $48 million.
The USDA’s purpose-built inspection and lab facility at 560 Eccles Avenue has quietly landed on the market, with an asking price near $48 million. The single-story, 21,552-square-foot complex sits on roughly 3.65 acres in the middle of the city’s biotech cluster and was completed in 2019 specifically for federal use. The listing effectively puts a mission-critical government tenant into play at a time when lab-ready space in the Bay Area is still hard to come by.
According to the San Francisco Business Times, the property is being offered by a family trust with a roughly $48 million asking price. A commercial listing from Douglas Elliman pegs the building at 21,552 square feet on a 3.65-acre parcel and confirms it was purpose-built in 2019 for USDA operations, with a floorplan that mixes office, lab and inspection areas.
Public records show the building last changed hands in November 2021 for about $47.13 million, according to Realtor.com. The USDA’s internal directories identify an APHIS Plant Inspection Station at the Eccles Avenue address, confirming the site’s role in federal plant and animal inspection work. Supporting USDA–APHIS documents describe the facility as part of the agency’s post-entry quarantine and inspection operations.
Why buyers will watch
Marketing materials pitch the complex as a “trophy” asset, thanks to its location inside South San Francisco’s dense biotech zone and the perceived credit strength of a federal tenant, a combination that tends to catch the eye of institutional investors. An earlier listing on LoopNet framed the property as institutional-grade, while broker materials circulated by Marcus & Millichap emphasized the portfolio stability that can come with a long-term government lease.
What the building contains
The Douglas Elliman materials spell out the facility’s highly specialized buildout: entomology and botany labs, 100% ducted exhaust with high air-change rates, high-purity reverse-osmosis water systems, a 500-kW standby diesel generator and Lenel access control backed by 24-hour CCTV. It is essentially turnkey for inspection and quarantine work, though those same systems could mean extra cost and complexity for anyone looking to retool the property for other wet lab or office uses.
Because the building is occupied by a government agency and constructed to a high security standard, any deal will likely involve a longer-than-usual due diligence period and detailed lease-assignment negotiations. Public filings and broker updates should reveal more as offers start to line up.
